


Little Psycho

by soo_ah0110



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Blood and Violence, Blow Jobs, Drama, Drugs, Eventual Smut, Family, Im Changkyun!Hacker, Kitchen Sex, Mafia AU, Multi, POV Alternating, Quickies, Recreational Drug Use, Revenge, Slow Burn, There's a Big Plan, Wonho!Hacker, Yoo Kihyun!Grey Eminence, but not by blood, fast love, long fic, there is blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:00:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 113,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26121559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soo_ah0110/pseuds/soo_ah0110
Summary: Yoo Kihyun was the grey eminence in the Ryu family cartel for quite the time considering his age and everything was going according to his plan. A plan he has made ages ago, a plan that was finally close to the final stage, a plan that wasn't easy to execute. But he trusted his family as much as they trusted him, after all they all began with the same goal.A story of getting revenge, family, blood and gore, dark humor and, of course, what would it be without a little loving.
Relationships: Im Changkyun | I.M/Yoo Kihyun
Comments: 50
Kudos: 38





	1. The Grey Eminence

**Author's Note:**

> Hi and welcome to my new story. I love stories where someone gets screwed over and that is kind of what this is, but I'm not going to give anymore spoilers as I love to keep stuff hidden from the reader for as long as possible. The POVs alternate in the story to tell it better. And even though there is a pretty big portion of the story told by the OFC Sera at the beginning, she is important as she reveals a lot about the other character and she is also the instrument to my gore-y fantasies (to which I will put up warnings, if you don't sit all that well with reading about blood and stuff). I will try to upload regularly but as the chapters are a little bit longer and I have to think ahead a lot, it might not be as fast as my previous story. I'm not sure what else to say other than I hope you enjoy it. :)

|Sera POV|

Sera rolled over on the bed and grunted in annoyance.

_Why the fuck is someone calling me so fucking early in the morning?_

She picked up the call without even taking a look at who’s calling, because there was only one person, who could call her at this ungodly hour.

“Yoo Kihyun… what do you want so fucking early?” she swore into the phone.

“ _It’s 9AM, Sera. Not that early…_ ”

“Still early to me. I was running business until wee hours,” Sera rubbed her eyes with one hand and thought of her friend. She could picture him so clearly in black tight jeans and a white button down at the main office because that’s what he wore every single freaking Thursday.

“ _Screwing some randomly picked up guy is not business, dear friend._ ” His voice was so casual and so knowing, she sometimes wondered if he had somehow injected a camera into her eyes and saw everything that she did. Except this time he was so damn wrong.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I was actually running business. Last night Hyunwoo called me that some guy didn’t want to pay what he owed for the stuff he bought, because apparently he sold under price. But it’s not like that’s my problem, right? So yeah, back to my point. Hyunwoo called pretty late and then after we were done with the guy we went to grab a drink at Minhyuk’s… and that’s how the night went,” Sera told him about the events of last night, which she did have to say were rather interesting.

She remembered fairly well that the guy, who didn’t want to pay for the drugs because he didn’t manage to sell so that he can return the money, left the building walking on his own - Hyunwoo asked Sera to show him kindness after all. The fact that he was carrying his right pointing finger in his left hand along with his left ear was her showing kindness to someone, who tried to not play fair with them. There were some in the past, who never walked out after trying some stupid trick on her - these ones, well… they left in the trunk of a car and headed somewhere, where not a single soul would be able to find them.

“ _Your drinking adventures with Hyunwoo and Minhyuk are still not a part of the business._ ” Kihyun’s voice never faltered when he tried to scold her.

“It was business, I wanted to check Minhyuk’s books, but he didn’t want to show them to me,” she pouted and imagine Kihyun shaking his head and face palming pretty violently.

“ _Even if he showed you the books, I somewhat doubt you would understand the numbers that he writes in. They’re fake anyway. We don’t keep our real numbers written in books for anyone to access. Imagine cops tipping in on that one.”_

“Yeah, yeah. Okay… obviously I’m not going to be able to persuade you that I was out on official business… so… what do you want?” she pushed out of myself as she tried to roll out of the bed, forcing her tired body to move even though it was not its will to do so.

“ _Come to the office, please._ ” Sera heard a smile in his voice. He knew she would come whenever he called. It was just fun to hold a banter and bicker when they could.

“Alright. I’ll take a shower and head out.”

“ _Please take a shower_.” Kihyun laughed on the other side of the phone call and Sera smirked at his demand. He was so sensitive to anything out of order.

Sera waltzed into Kihyun’s office without knocking and headed to the couch he had there. Kihyun stood form his chair and leaned against the edge of his massive wooden table.

“So what’s up, boss?” Sera smiled at him tiredly amused, knowing well he was going to disagree with her right away.

“You know I’m not the boss,” Kihyun sighed but there was a certain content behind that sigh. One Sera has seen countless of times.

“If you say so. But it’s funny how everyone knows you are.”

“And so do I,” he chimed confidently with a mildly sly grin. “But honestly for the sake of you know who’s confidence I have to deny that claim out loud.”

“Whatever floats your boat, your eminence,” Sera settled deeper into the couch. “So what do you need so early in the morning?”

“It’s almost noon.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“There’s someone, who needs you attention.”

“Ugh… and does this someone need my _immediate_ attention?”

“Kinda. Why?” Kihyun asked her intrigued, since she usually never protested.

“’Cause I’m mentally so beat after the last couple of nights. I’m tired of guys, who can’t even use their fingers properly. I’m not even going to go into them using their manhood properly… I don’t think I’ve met one that knew what to do with it nicely,” she sighed out of frustration over the events that keep re-occurring in her life, but especially the night before the last one.

“I don’t really want to hear about this,” Kihyun shook his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah, well, I don’t give a shit about what you want to hear or not,” she dismissed him with a wave of a hand.

“You just said I’m your boss.” Kihyun was so easily amused it was funny.

“It’s interesting that you pull out the boss card every time you need something from me. Why don’t you just ask me as a friend? A friend that knows all your dirty little secrets?” she smirked at him, enjoying the typical banter.

“You know what happened last time I asked you to keep an eye on someone,” he gave her _the look_ and she smile to herself absolutely shamelessly. “You literally had his eye in your hand.”

“Dude, he was disrespecting you. How could I ever let that slide?” Apart from Sera and a couple of others, no one, and really not a single person, not even God, had the permission to show Kihyun disrespect in Sera’s eyes. Most people knew that and those, who didn’t, well… they didn’t really walk among the living anymore.

“You don’t see me complaining, do you? He got what was coming for him anyway. You don’t try and play with us,” Kihyun laughed humorlessly.

“You mean ‘us’ as in the two of us? Or ‘us’ as in the gang?”

“The two of us, of course,” he winked at her assuring.

“Aha!” Sera exclaimed and sat up on the couch with the brightest smile ever. “I knew you loved me.”

“How could I not? Okay, now go gather the intel, please.”

“Would love to, however you still didn’t tell me, who the person that needs my immediate attention is,” she reminded him in a business voice.

“Im Changkyun.”

“No idea who that is. What does he do?”

“He’s a hacker.”

“Why do we need the hacker, supposing it is the two of us that need a hacker, otherwise you wouldn’t be calling _me_ to get you the deets about someone?”

“Because a little birdie told me he hacked the national bank.”

“The national bank?” she looked at him dumbfounded. “I could hack it, their security is really shitty.”

“Yes… but nobody found out and no one knows about it. He was in and out like a far-away lightning bolt, no thunder sounded.”

“And if no one knows about it, how did _you_ find out?”

“A little birdie told me,” he repeated.

“Little birdie’s name Minhyuk?” she asked, pretty sure what the answer is going to be.

“One and only,” Kihyun grinned pleased.

“Okay, but still, you didn’t answer my question of why we _need_ a hacker?”

“Because the bank’s vault doesn’t only hold money like people think,” he explained to Sera and was met with understanding. They wouldn’t need to rob the bank to have money. They had enough money to have their great-grand children live a lavish life. He wanted something else and it was also not from the bank most likely. The bank being only a test for the hacker.

“I know that,” she replied.

“Yes. And I could use with some valuable information that is hidden in electronic vaults around the world. The darkest spot is right under the lamp,” his eye glimmered with a plan.

“And there you go planning shit again,” she laughed shortly realizing she was already in for a pretty ride. Kihyun’s plans always worked out, no matter how crazy or how unimaginable they were - after all he was the mastermind. He was the grey eminence. While the boss was the figure that led the gang, Kihyun was the one, who truly steered the wheel and made the whole gang go the direction he wanted it to go and all of that from a relatively safe distance, where no harm could come to him.

“That’s what I do, Sera.”

“Okay, I’ll go then. But make sure you come to the fight on Friday,” she stood up and headed to the door.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he called out after her. “I have my money riding on you after all.”

Sera turned around and grinned at him with all the self-confidence she had and for sure had a shit ton of it. “And I won’t break your trust, my friend.”

She closed the door behind her and went to search for a certain Im Changkyun.

Minhyuk’s bar always had the lofi-chill hop kind of music on during the open hours during day and on Thursdays to Sundays club music of all sorts at night, however when it was closed Minhyuk just loved to play all kinds of good rock. And that’s exactly what Sera heard when she entered the bar as if it was her own.

She made a bee line behind the bar to the coffee machine to make myself a nice espresso since it was past noon already, she hadn’t had any coffee or food yet. But first coffee, she knew her priorities.

When her coffee was done she sat at the bar and sipped it slowly.

“You would look good behind the bar,” Minhyuk came from behind her and stood next to her. When Sera pulled her hair behind her ear and showed him her cheek he gave her a quick kiss before he moved behind the bar. “I bet many of my customers would come even more often.”

“Tsk, and here I am rejecting you offer again,” she shrugged and winked at him.

Minhyuk took a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his jeans and lit up followed with one long drag, appreciating the smoke entering his lungs. “Nothing new under the sun, love. Is Hyunwoo not joining you today?”

“It’s a one man job this fine afternoon,” she sighed regretfully, having to leave their banter for business purposes.

“I see. Kiki’s being a little shit again, eh?” he snickered.

“Most certainly,” she couldn’t help but agree with him.

“So how can I help?

“I’m searching for someone of the name Im Changkyun…” she told Minhyuk as he finished his cigarette and threw the butt into pristine clear empty and very fancy glass ashtray. Everything about Minhyuk’s bar screamed fancy, but not distasteful. It was the kind of a bar that took you aback the moment you stepped in. The high ceilings and airy feeling in downtown bars was unseen and could solely be afforded with a very big pile of money, which Minhyuk had at his disposal. Funnily enough he wore old clothes and enjoyed buying them in second hand shops. He once said he enjoyed the stories he made up in his made about people, who wore the clothes before him. _I guess we’re all fucked up in one way or another._

Minhyuk brought his hand to the pack again and in one swift motion took out another cigarette. He lit it up with a hum. “Hmmm,” he took a short drag followed by the hiss to emphasize breathing in the smoke. “The hacker?”

“The very same,” Sera finished her coffee and leaned into the bar on the high chair.

“And what do you need with said Im Changkyun?” Min suddenly seemed deeply interested.

“It’s less of what I need with him and more of what Kihyun wants with him,” she purposefully formulated her sentence so that both Min and Sera got the opportunity to laugh at the double sense. Kihyun would laugh too, but his cheeks would burn red. And that was why it was so much fun to tease him. Only that it happened when the family was near.

To have any misunderstanding taken out - the word ‘family’ wasn’t thrown around carelessly. The family consisted of 5 people, Sera included. They picked their family, the birth one gone or condemned. 

“Mmhhhhmmmm, I can see why. That face… must be heaven when he swallows around a good length with that mouth. Ah!” Minhyuk went all hyper about it Sera erupted in a wholehearted laughter at how worked up he could get himself with a mere image put into his dirty mind.

“No, you dummy. He wants him to hack someone or something. I didn’t really feel like asking for details after last night, though,” she corrected him mockingly.

“Oh yeah, but I’m sure there will be some of that swallowing too, trust me, love. He will go after that ass,” Minhyuk winked at her and grinned.

“Alright, alright. Any info about where I can find him?”

“Probably at his university. My guess would be library; he looks like a nerdy kid.”

After obtaining the information she needed from Minhyuk she got out into the street through the main entrance and into her car that was parked in that one spot reserved for Kihyun’s or her car. Having a parking spot like this on the main street was a luxury not many could buy. But then again, Sera’s car was a luxury not many could buy.

Sera hasn’t visited a library for a while now, so seeing all those books together in one place that could just burn down so easily with all the paper stacked in there was a little temptation to take out the zippo from the pocket of her tight skinny black jeans. But since that wasn’t what she came there to do, she could only let it roam around her imagination.

The short cute boy Sera stopped in the café to ask about Im Changkyun mentioned she could find him in the library. She couldn’t understand how she got so lucky that the first person she come across knew this Im Changkyun. Sera was also pretty stunned to see that the boy went straight to the library completely oblivious to the fact she was following him. She wasn’t even sneaking around or anything. She literally just walked behind him. The broken e-gates at the library were a big help too, since she didn’t have to ask for a visitor pass or whatever the lady at the reception was calling at her when she followed after the short boy.

Now Sera was standing one bookshelf away from where the short boy finally found the student Changkyun sitting at a small table. She hated when people eavesdropped but she was hypocritical enough to do it herself. In their line of business, everything was okay as long as you didn’t get caught.

“Changkyun,” the short boy said in a hushed but ushered voice, quite suitable for the library.

“Woozi? What’s up?” he spoke to him in an unexpectedly deep voice.

“Yo, a hot girl is looking for you.”

_Thank you._

“A hot girl?” he doubted him with an uncertainty in his voice.

“I mean, I get that you don’t really think of girls that way but, dang, this girl… wow… she hot maaaaaan!!! Like really hot.”

Sera did _not_ expect such a cute boy talk like this. It shocked her so much she almost burst out laughing, which certainly would not be the first time she would blow her cover by laughing at something that was said during eavesdropping.

At that point Sera decided to put on my best face and come out of hiding and stod at the edge of the table looking down at Im Changkyun.

“Are you Im Changkyun?” she asked just as a conversation starter.

“Yeah,” he dragged out and his eyes travelled up and down Sera’s body assessing her. She almost smirked at that. Most men do that when she was around anyway. She got used to it.

Sera turned to the cute Woozi called boy and smiled sweetly. “Would you mind?”

“No, no, no, not at all,” he rushed to reply and picked up his binders that he set on the table. He left hastily and Sera sat down in his chair, leaned back against the back rest, and crossed her legs and her arms comfortably. She smiled at Changkyun.

“You’re not from uni, I suppose,” he stated calmly, but the waters were milling under the bridge.

“Do I look like a cop?” she quirked her brow playfully, curious tone in the voice.

“I can’t really place you,” he cocked his hand and pulled air in through his teeth.

“But I can place you.”

“Are you a cop?” Now a hint of fear laces his voice.

“Hmm… I like to play the bad cop,” she replied playfully.

“So you’re not a cop.”

“Most certainly not,” she assured him. “I have my own set of laws.”

“And how do I fall into your set of laws? Into your equation?” he questioned, curiosity apparently peaked to the max.

“I know someone who really wants to meet you,” Sera leaned forward to emphasize what she just said.

“What if I don’t want to meet him or her?” he tried.

“Well, I won’t force you to do something you don’t want to do of course, per se, but…”

“But you have means to make me what to do it. Am I getting it right?”

“To the dot,” she grinned at him, but the tone of her voice remained unchanged - sweet.

“So it would be easier for me to come willingly, eh?” he smirked at this point. Probably realized that he was coming with her whether he wanted it or not.

“Of course, that’s always the easy way,” she dropped backwards again and put a relaxed face on.

“How much?” Changkyun asked as he starts packing his stuff.

Sera stood up and gave him a quick daring smile. “Well, your wages are up to you, Im Changkyun.”

|Kihyun POV|

Every single week Kihyun has dreaded the regular visit to the Ryu family house to report to Ryu Sungmoon. Kihyun couldn’t blame the house or the reports, it was him. The very power hungry man thought of Kihyun as his most trusted advisor and right hand man, while Sera his niece was thought of nothing better than a dog on a tight leash. The way he controlled how things worked around the family was by inflicting fear rather than shining with well earned respect.

On the other hand, Kihyun was the polar opposite. People in the Ryu family considered him not much, underestimated him every single moment they got, but once Kihyun got the chance he could be ruthless. He used his brain to do the work, rather than muscle and force. He enjoyed information and what knowing something someone didn’t want others to know did to people. It drove them crazy that what they wanted to keep hidden away from the world was discovered and that was the leverage he used all throughout his life when he wanted to achieve something. People have called Kihyun sneaky, sly, underhanded, dishonest and many others of this kind. He has been called words that many people probably don’t even know. But there was only one word Kihyun could use on himself - _smart_.

He walked through the halls of that terrible showcase of power Ryu Sungmoon called a house, led by a maid with head bowed low even when she silently walked on the dark wooden floors. Kihyun didn’t need her to lead the way. He’s been at his position for 7 years now and he did this pretty much every week. He knew his way after the first time he’s been there.

She opened the door for Kihyun and the vast space of the office looked opulent but was absolutely distasteful.

“Kihyun,” the man sitting behind the big desk called out and smiled widely. “Come in, come in.”

The man sitting on the other side of the desk stood up from his chair and nodded to Kihyun on his way out.

“Good afternoon, sir,” Kihyun pushed out of himself. He really felt like not being here today but there was not a single thing he could possibly do about that. Today, when he finally found out about the kid, who hacked the national bank and his plan was starting to come off the paper and all the set-up stages. But this was also a part of his plan and he could not let any doubt slip in and splinter something he’s been building for years.

Kihyun made his way to the couch were he always sat - on the right side of the armchair, where the boss just nestled in.

“Kihyun, tell me. Did you finally start working out?” the older man asked jovially.

Kihyun tried to look shocked for a split second. “No, sir.”

“Hmm, you look a little bit bigger. Do you now want to try it maybe?”

“It’s not my cup of coffee, sir. And I can’t imagine when I would find time for that. If everything is to run smoothly, things need my attention,” Kihyun answered his typical way and the boss looked satisfied.

“Yes, yes. But have you maybe thought of finding yourself a wife? You’re quite the bachelor, Kihyun. I’m sure many would…”

“Sir,” Kihyun interrupted his what was to be a long monologue. “I have a lot of work to do after this still. Would you mind if I get to the report?”

“Ah, yes, yes, go ahead. How’s the situation in the middle east we’ve talked about last time?” the boss dived right into the matter.

“We’re to receive a 500kg package in late hours tomorrow and the team will move them to the storage houses where appropriate amounts will be distributed between the street dealers like always. It should generate about 3,75 million and about 1 million should be used to support the plantations in South Americas, due to the draught that is going on there right now, unless we want to risk the drying out of the plants. Out of the remaining money some of it should be distributed as salaries and that should leave the close Ryu family alone at about 1 million,” Kihyun explained in his business voice.

“That’s not a whole lot,” the boss didn’t look happy about what he got. He scratched his chin and looked back to Kihyun.

“Sir, the situation in South America is really not good. Unless we do something now, the money that we would need to salvage the plantations after the plants die would triple fold,” Kihyun warned him.

“Hmm, okay. Do what you will then. I think you know best anyway.”

 _Damn right I do, you idiot,_ Kihyun thought to himself. “The development of the Dark Widow is also going fairly well. The chemists are working hard on cultivating the right ratio,” Kihyun opened another topic.

“How long do you think it will take?”

“Not too long now, I believe. But we are running into problems of good testing subjects. People we test on are getting slowly adjusted to whatever we give them and giving them more would cost too much.”

“Why don’t we just start testing in the streets like I said?” Ryu Sungmoon asked.

_Because that is the stupidest idea ever, you dumb fuck. Give an untested drug out and cops are on you the minute somebody buys, even if you pay straight into the pocket of the higher ups. Which, needless to say, was a stupid idea, because money is not as powerful as information._

“Sir, I’ve mentioned before we would be running a high risk of discovery as well as losing our reputation with the highest places. I strongly advise not to take such measures,” Kihyun warns him again with a sterner voice.

“Okay, I’ll leave it to you then,” he finally decided to do exactly what he always did. Just leave it to Kihyun. “And how is Sera doing? I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“Your niece is doing just fine, sir. Her next fight is on Friday.”

“Against?”

“The Huntress, sir.”

“Easy for her?” he asked, but his concerns lie more in the fact that if Sera got hurt, she could not do his bidding, therefore she became expendable.

“I have my money riding on her, sir,” Kihyun tells him as a matter of fact.

“And you never bet wrong, do you?” Ryu Sungmoon smirked.

“Never,” Kihyun replied with the highest confidence.

The moment Kihyun got back to his office he took his phone out and dialled Minhyuk. He picked up after a couple rings.

“Mihyuk, can you please come to my office?” he asked of him without properly greeting him.

“ _Why?_ ” Minhyuk demanded answers from the other side of the line.

“I want to talk to you about something.”

“ _Come to my bar then_ ,” Minhyuk tried his luck.

“It’s not exactly a bar talk.”

“ _When you talk with the owner of a bar, technically everything becomes a bar talk_.”

“Can you please come to the office, Minhyuk?” Kihyun’s patience was starting to run low as it often did when he talked to Minhyuk. He just knew how to get on his nerves.

“ _No. If you want to talk to me either come to the bar or take me out for dinner. Somewhere fancy, preferably. You like flexing your money anyway, so why not show off in front of me?_ ”

“Minhyuk…” Kihyun made a silent threat with the tone of his voice.

“ _Oh, and what do you want with that Changkyun kid?_ ” Minhyuk changed the topic out of nowhere, curiosity obvious in his voice.

“I need him for a job,” Kihyun explained curtly.

“ _He’ll stay_ ,” Minhyuk chuckled.

“What?”

“ _I said: he’ll stay_ ,” Minhyuk raised his voice.

“I heard you the first time. I meant: what is that supposed to mean?”

“ _It meant that he’ll stay ‘cause once you see that ass you won’t let go. I would do him, too_ ,” Minhyuk kept laughing and mocking Kihyun.

“Minhyuuuuk…” Kihyun made a growling noise with the back of his throat warning Minhyuk again.

“ _Kiki, c’mon. You need an ass and I fucking mean it. Trust me when I say that one you won’t resist_.”

“Listen here, you little shit…” Kihyun was starting to fume.

“ _LITTLE?! I’m taller and older than you, Yoo Kihyun!_ ”

“BY 19 DAYS!!!!” Kihyun shouted so loud that the glass in the floor to ceiling windows of his office started to shake.

Minhyuk just laughed at this wholeheartedly, amused to the point of wheezing instead of laughing.

“Should I send Hyunwoo over there to fucking pick you up? Or will you fucking come here on your own?” Kihyun forced himself to calm his voice down, but his blood was still just below boiling point. Only Minhyuk could rile him up so badly. Not even Sera had this ability, only Minhyuk has been given this skill by God. And no matter how many times he’s told himself during his life he’s not going to get furious he always did, Minhyuk just somehow knew how to push the buttons.

“ _And what is Son Hyunwoo going to do? I fucked that ass, he ain’t gon do shit_ ,” Minhyuk spat from the other side, but Kihyun knew better. Minhyuk held Hyunwoo with such respect in his mind, probably more respect than he’s ever had for Kihyun himself. But then again Hyunwoo was the oldest out of them. Followed by Minhyuk in age, then Kihyun, Hyungwon and finally Sera was just a couple days younger than Hyungwon.

“I’m pretty sure it was the other way around,” Kihyun grinned this time knowing the truth behind the past sexual happening between Minhyuk and Hyunwoo.

“ _Oh, how delusional ideas you have about our dear Hyunwoo. How little you know about that bear…_ ”

“Minhyuk, I saw you. Unfortunately I could not wash my eyes with bleach after, but I saw you. You were getting fucked pretty hard. By him,” it was Kihyun, who was chuckling now.

“ _Yeah. Good night that one_ ,” Minhyuk mentioned with a dreamy voice.

“Is there anyone in the family you haven’t fucked really?” Kihyun asked jokingly even though he knew the answer.

“ _Well, there’s you, Hyungwon and Sera. Does fucking myself count as fucking someone from the family?_ ” Minhyuk played him again.

Kihyun took a deep calming sigh, he felt his irritation level rise again. “Just come to the office.”

Behind Kihyun the door flew open. “I’m here, you idiot,” Minhyuk announced standing in the door.

|Sera POV|

Sera parked her matte grey Jaguar F in front of the building where Kihyun’s office was. Up to this day she still could not believe he had as actually building with an actual office, when he could literally work from home. But not believing did not mean not understanding. He never allowed the boss into his home. Only the family was allowed.

“You have a great car,” Changkyun next to her said but his voice sounded like he was going to be sick. “But your driving skills… not so much.”

“Why?”

“Uhh, speed limits, stop signs, red lights… I guess you’ve never heard of those, right?” he shot her glare, worry gleaming in his eyes.

“Oh, come on, do you really think I’m gonna get a fine?” Sera looked at his in disbelief. “In this car?”

“Wow, privileged kids…” Changkyun bitterly bit out and shook his head.

“Privileged? I’m not privileged. I earned this car, in more ways than just buying it with money. Don’t assume something you have no idea about, Im Changkyun,” I told him in a warning, fierce, almost hostile voice, which caused sudden fear rise to his eyes. It was a big change from how she had been talking to him until then with smiles and jokes. But he really shouldn’t jump to conclusions about people like her, people like Kihyun and her family. They might look like we didn’t have a single worry in life, but they damn sure have gone through their fair share of shit. “Let’s go.”

Reaching the top floor of the multi office building took a couple minutes in the high speed elevator. The ride was silent and Sera welcomed that.

She walked out first leading the way to Kihyun’s office. When the secretary outside notices Sera she hurried to open the door for her with a polite bow before she reached them. Sera guessed the one before her told her that she didn’t wait for the door.

“Miss Ryu, would you like something to drink or eat?” she asked Sera politely as she entered the office. Sera noticed Minhyuk sitting on the couch smiling like a lunatic.

“A glass of Dom Pérignon Rose Gold would be nice, but I doubt you can get that, right?” Sera tested her to see how the new secretary was going to act when she was around. She was quite pretty, but ‘does she have brains’ was the question.

“I’m sorry, miss Ryu, I’m afraid I cannot find that in this building. But I most certainly can make you coffee,” she didn’t back down and made a comeback offer.

 _Not bad for being new, I gotta say._ “You most certainly can try, but I have a very specific taste for coffee.”

“I will try my best,” the secretary assured Sera and then looked to Changkyun, who as the only person in the room was dressed in completely contrasting clothes to us three. He was in a slouchy hoodie and ripped loose fit jeans with a back pack hanging on one shoulder. “And for you, Mr. Im?”

“Umm, water?” he asked shyly and also looked very creeped out that even she knew his name.

She left the room and Sera threw herself on the couch next to Minhyuk. “She didn’t talk to me like that,” he complained to me as he kissed Sera’s cheek again in greeting.

“I guess you and I have very different auras,” Sera leaned back and put her head on his shoulder, seeking the comfort it offered, snuggling close to him.

“Hi, Changkyun. I’m Yoo Kihyun, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Kihyun introduced himself politely with a small bow and then extended his hand to shake the student’s. Changkyun tentatively reached out and shook Kihyun’s hand.

“Im Changkyun,” he responded quietly, slightly losing his previous attitude that he was trying out on me before. I saw a sudden spark light up in his eyes when he tok a good look at Kihyun’s face that was now decorated with a genuine kind smile. Not many people got to see it. Sera guessed this kid was going to be more than just a hacker. But she would leave that to auntie matchmaker Minhyuk to put his fingers into. “Umm, pleasure.”

“Why don’t you sit down first?” Kihyun showed him the armchair on the opposite side of the couch. Kihyun’s office was probably the only office Sera had ever seen that didn’t have the typical head armchair and then couches on both sides along the coffee table. This office was different. It had a round glass coffee table in the centre, the chairs and a small couch (currently occupied by Minhyuk and Sera) in a circle around it. Kihyun said one time when Hyunwoo asked him about it that they were all equal in this family and one ‘deserved’ to sit at the head. Sera always liked that idea. “We have to wait for two more members to join us anyway.”

There was a knock on the door and the secretary walked in with a tray followed by Hyunwoo, the lead of security and head of operations dealt with on the streets, which happened only when there were problems and that was somewhat often. Just like everyone, he was an important part of the family.

“Hi everyone,” he greeted them and made his way to the armchair he typically sat in. Then he noticed the new member at the table. “I’m Son Hyunwoo, nice to meet you.”

Changkyun shook his hand too. “Im Changkyun. Nice to meet you, too.”

“Where is Hyungwon? I called him but he didn’t pick up?” Hyunwoo asked when Kihyun sat down in his spot on the only wooden and very old-fashioned armchair that looked more like an old office chair.

“He’s on the way,” Minhyuk informed Hyunwoo. “He was tending to something in his office that I didn’t even pay attention to when he explained to me. Sounded rather boring, though.”

I poked Minhyuk in his ribs with my elbow. The truth was that nothing was ever boring for Minhyuk if it meant information. Then there was another knock on the door and the secretary opened the door for a tall man with a slender figure and bleached hair - Dr. Chae Hyungwon.

He walked in without a loud greeting just a bright smile on his face and a soft wave of his graceful hand. As he walked past the couch occupied by Minhyuk and Sera, he fist bumped with Min and leaned in to kiss her softly on the cheek much closer to the corner of her mouth than Minhyuk’s kiss, holding Sera closer with his hand gently on her other cheek. She leaned into the kiss and closed her eyes and plastered a pleased smile on her face. When he pulled away Sera looked shortly into his eyes and then he went to his spot.

“Hi, I’m Hyungwon, you must be Changkyun,” Hyungwon extended his hand to the younger man and Changkyun took it respectfully into his.

“Hello.”

“So I’m here, let’s get the party started?” Hyungwon suggested and Kihyun nodded and began to explain what Changkyun was doing there and why he was necessary for the plan that Kihyun had in his mind.

When Kihyun finished explaining, silence fell over the room. They all have heard the plan before, either in particular snippets or the whole thing when it had still been unfinished. Sera had known the plan ever since Kihyun and her started to put down the first wheels and ground basics. That was years ago.

Changkyun clicked with his tongue and looked deep in thought. “What you’re asking of me is not a one man job.”

“What do you mean?” Kihyun asked with a raised brow, one hand scratching his chin.

“I mean, I can’t do it alone. It’s not easy and definitely not in the timeframe you want to get it done in,” Changkyun replies and Kihyun looked like he’s considering the truthfulness of the hacker’s answer.

“Okay. I bet you have someone in particular in mind then.”

Changkyun sighed and nodded. “I won’t tell you his real name, but he goes by Wonho.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think of the first chapter? It's probably a little slow of a start, but I promise it will pick up. :) I'll also be really happy if you drop me a comment or a kudo (￣y▽￣)╭ <3


	2. The Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new member joins the family...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy ^^ <3

|Sera POV|

“I won’t tell you his real name, but he goes by Wonho,” Changkyun said. Trying to keep a secret.

Kihyun’s gleamed with challenge acceptance and jumped from Changkyun to Minhyuk. “Wonho… Minhyuk?”

“ _Wonho?_ Hmmmmm… Lee Hoseok, March 1st 1993. Currently still in university due to failing math last year. He had to postpone the degree year,” Minhyuk recited from the top of his mind, which was an amazing place that Sera never wanted to enter. Minhyuk was the best informant and information resource there was, plus he had photographic memory. He was simply as amazing as he was annoying or scary at times.

“How do you know that?” Changkyun asked Minhyuk in utter shock, but Minhyuk only smiled sweetly.

“Kyunnie, I know everything,” Min dismissed it with a wave of his hand and a soft name for the hacker and a proper proud smile beaming on his face.

“Oh yeah? What color is my underwear?” Hyunwoo challenged him. Sera was starting to get worried about where this was heading.

“Black,” Minhyuk answered plainly with zero interested, completely indifferent. “You don’t really wear anything else. Would be a Hugo Boss, too.”

“Hmm, bold of you to assume I’m wearing any,” Hyunwoo laughed out and Kihyun choked on the sip of water he just took.

“Ugh. _NO!_ Sorry, but I gotta go wash my ears.” Sera tried to get up from the couch but Minhyuk pulled her down. She hated when these guys started talking about stuff she didn’t really need to or want to know.

“Sera,” Minhyuk said in a calming manner. “He’s wearing black Hugo Boss, calm down.”

Before Hyunwoo could speak in his defense, Hyungwon lifted his hand and silence followed. “Min, please stop. You’re being creepy again.”

|Kihyun POV|

Kihyun and Sera were sitting in his office on the couch with their feet on the table once everyone left. Hyungwon had to go back to his office, Minhyuk to run the bar of course and Hyunwoo took it upon him to take Changkyun back to his dorm room safely. Now the two were close to each other on the small couch in silence, both of their minds wandering off to unknown distances.

“Is it really necessary?” Sera asked and broke the silence of the room.

“Yes,” Kihyun replied with a heavy sigh. “It needs to be done.”

“It’s another neck on the line,” Sera reminded Kihyun, who moved his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“I’ll have to accommodate to it,” Kihyun admitted seriously.

“Ki, we’ve got nothing to lose, none of us, but he… he’s got a family, mother, brother and sister, aunts and uncles, cousins,” Sera told Kihyun gravely. Kihyun knew that bringing in Wonho would be risky, not only to him but also to his family, to everything and everyone precious to him. He knew very well that what Sera was saying was the truth and he should be worried. And he was, don’t get the wrong impression, but the plan was already in motion. He would have to make tweaks now along the way, but those were not as serious as what he’s done already. The plan needed to go on for everyone’s sake, not only for his and Sera’s. “What about dogs and cats?”

“Dogs and cats? Really?” Kihyun burst out in a short laugh. “Wow, you know what, I’ll get you a dog once this is over. So you have something to love.”

“When this is over get me a straight jacket,” she stated plainly and Kihyun knew she was joking only on 25%.

He ruffled Sera’s hair, even though he had the knowledge that she hated that endearment to the gut, as much as cheek pinching. “My little psycho.”

“If you don’t take that hand off now, you might not have a hand to take off,” she warned him and Kihyun laughed a full hearted belly laugh.

Sera’s phone rang and Hyunwoo showed up on the screen. He called her to let her know Changkyun has gotten home safe and sound. And that he had something important to talk to her about, which cause Sera to stand up from the couch and head over to Minhyuk’s bar, leaving Kihyun alone.

Kihyun left alone with his thoughts was something that happened on the daily. Some days he wanted it to be like that some days he hated it almost as much as he despised his target. Almost.

Deciding he wouldn’t do much in the office today, he turned off his laptop and deposited it into his bag. Leaving the office he bid his new secretary goodbye and decided it would be for the best if this one kept quiet too. Kihyun knew very well the boss hadn’t planted this one, he didn’t have a single reason to not trust everything Kihyun told him, but it could have been anyone else from their competition and she seemed too good to be true when it came to secretaries.

All Kihyun had to do was to make a call…

Sera was busy now, so he decided to call her when he got to the safety of his own home.

|Sera POV|

Hyunwoo asked Sera to come to Minhyuk’s bar just 15 minutes after he left Kihyun’s office, so of course she was a little annoyed with him for the fact he couldn’t tell her right away instead of calling. Some days she would just get annoyed for random weird stuff, but blamed it on the upcoming fight in two days. She was both excited and worried. Excited because she got to fight officially with someone and both sides enjoyed it and the other side fought back too (plus it was paid), whereas when it was work related only Sera enjoyed it and the other side didn’t fight back (it’s never like she gave them a choice, so why was she even complaining?).

Again, she parked on her spot in front of Min’s bar and walked to the door, not expecting there to be a line at the entrance but that didn’t really bother her anyway. At the door, as soon as the guard noticed Sera walking up, he ushered the people he was about to let in back and opened the door wide for her, greeting her with a polite bow. Sera smiled at him and walked inside, the waiters and bartenders were running around in a busy frenzy, while she walked behind the bar casually.

There was a new bartender, who looked like he was about to tell Sera something when Minhyuk appeared from the back, pulling her close to him to kiss her cheek for the 3rd time that day. The bartender looked rather surprised but then one that had been there for a while tapped him on the shoulder to start working again.

“Hyunwoo is in my office,” Minhyuk told her and she nodded in acknowledgement.

“Why are you not there?”

“I was, but he said this was a private talk and who am I to listen to private talks?” Minhyuk shrugged with feign innocence.

“You’re Lee Minhyuk,” this time Sera kissed him on the cheek, having to boost herself on her tip toes. He made a pleased loving face and Sera left to take stairs to his office.

When she entered she noticed Hyunwoo sitting at Minhyuk’s desk with his feet up, drinking expensive imported craft beer from the bottle.

“You really could not have told me you wanted to speak to me in private when we were in Kihyun’s office. I had to skip practice because of you,” Sera said as she plopped comfortably on to the big couch Minhyuk had in his office.

“I didn’t want to bring it up in front of Kihyun because I want to first pass it by you,” Hyunwoo looked her in the eye and she searched for what cause could be so important that it had to pass by her too.

“Speak, my dearest brother.”

“Kihyun asked me to find someone to keep an eye on someone, who was about to join the family. So I started to look for someone and I found the person. Now that I know, who the person joining the family is, I’m even more sure. But a small problem occurred. The problem being the extra person - Wonho. They don’t live together even though they’re best friends, which will require me to get involved until they move into one of the places Kihyun provides,” Hyunwoo explained it to me.

“Okay, I’m always going to check up with you and your schedule before going into something that would require our combined attention, but I think I can mainly handle everything on my own, so it’s fine. If you’re with one of them and someone calls for you, let me know, I’ll deal with it. But then I’m still not sure why this is something that would need to be talked over with me without Kihyun?” Sera gave him a confused stare and quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Well, this guy I found… I kinda want him in the family. He’s a guy I’ve known for a while but haven’t previously paid all too much attention too, but then I checked him over and over again and found out he is not very different from us,” Hyunwoo said clearly uncertain about how she was going to take it.

‘Being not very different from us’ was a code she used with Kihyun when they talked about people, who had the same target as their small family. That’s how the 5 of them got together in the first place. Hyunwoo, Minhyuk and Hyungwon had their own reasons, which differed from Kihyun’s and Sera’s but the result they wanted was the same.

“How similar are we talking?” she questioned Hyunwoo.

“Family similar.”

“Hmmm, I’m not sure this is something to be discussed with me now, Hyunwoo. Kihyun just told me he’s going to change the plan to accommodate Wonho, with whom he didn’t count with. Plus, if Kihyun doesn’t know him I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Sera shook her head slightly.

“Kihyun knows him. Not the level I do, but he is familiar with him, his past and his work. I can vouch for him with you.”

“So you have spoken about this with Kihyun.”

“Not like this, not about everything. The guy had a couple of external jobs with us when you were out and Kihyun trusted him back then.”

Sera fell silent, thinking about all the possibilities of what might or might not happen. Kihyun knew about this guy Hyunwoo wanted to drag in but didn’t know that he wanted him in. This was a rather peculiar situation Hyunwoo had put Sera into. She was not going to say that she didn’t have a power over Kihyun because she do, but she also hated using it. Especially about things she was not sure about.

“Did you talk about it with Minhyuk and Hyungwon?”

“Not with Hyungwon, he’s been busy as you very well know. But Minhyuk knows the guy of course, he’s the one who found him when we needed him couple years ago for the first time anyway, he said he agrees with him joining in, that he is way too similar to be left alone. Hyungwon won’t oppose unless you will.”

He had the key members of the family down for sure, Sera had to give him that. “So tell me about this new guy you want in,” she told him in a business like voice and a bright smile appeared on Hyunwoo’s face - he knew he won her over.

“Name’s Lee Jooheon.”

“Lee Jooheon. What’s he like?” she investigated further.

“Well, he’s a little bit of a scaredy cat,” Hyunwoo chuckled to himself.

Sera laughed out loud, genuinely amused. “A scaredy cat in our line of business?”

“He has potential, I told you,” he smiled.

“Older or younger than me?”

“Younger, but not by a whole year.”

“You fucking the boy?”

Hyunwoo shook his head and gave Sera an annoyed look. “It’s not like that. He’s more a like a little brother I want to protect.”

“The moment you vouched for him, he was already in. You have never ever put your name onto someone like that, so I trust your judgment on this. So, the second youngest of the family is Lee Jooheon, now. I'm moving up the age ladder, yay.”

The moment Sera arrived at her flat overlooking the busy streets of the city, she kicked off her Vans and walked over to the bathroom to wash her hands. She always immediately washed her hands when she came home. It has become a much needed everyday ritual for her ever since she started working for her uncle, which, truth be told, was a long ass time ago. She washed off anything and everything she had touched that day. Hyungwon once mentioned it was an OCD at this point and after 5 minutes of arguing, she agreed with him. Sera had some habits that she haven’t broken in years. And one of them is calling Hyungwon every night she got home safe and sound, alone and sober or not.

And today was not going to be different. However she felt rather stiff and the approaching fight had made her sleep a little worse so she decided to make her way to the balcony where she had a small box of first aid kit containing melatonin and pre-rolled joints from Minhyuk. If she had to be honest, he rolled the best joints in town. She stopped smoking as much as she used to when Kihyun said the time was coming. Sera knew she needed to be sharp all the time, not that she haven’t been before, but it was more like ‘sharper than usual’.

Sera stepped onto the balcony and dared not to look down. Not that she was afraid of heights but it wasn’t just once that she thought of only taking that one more stride over the railing. Many people looked at her and thought her life was easy. They thought she was a girl from a privileged family, who got whatever she wanted because she was daddy’s little girl. Sera never got that even when she had a father. And after she lost him and her mom, she only got treatment from her uncle that only led her to what she was today. One would say that he would show only the good things to the daughter of his older brother but rather he chose to bring her up to be his personal ‘account manager’ as he liked to call it. Sera basically killed and tortured the people he told her to. Anyone, who might have been a thread to him and the Ryu family and its business, was dealt with by her. At first, when he brought Sera to his house right after her parents’ deaths, she was put through a year of ruthless training by the best of the best when it came to hand-to-hand combat, armed combat with various hand held weapons and also shooting along with lasting through various kinds of torture. The second year, her teacher only got worse with her. She had never known fear of blood or inflicting pain and death upon others. Mind you, she was 8 when her parents died. For him, Sera was the perfect weapon at his disposal, a collared dog at his feet that would come running whenever he whistled. She stopped having nightmares about what she’d done to people when she was 12. Ever since then people would say she was deranged.

Sera dialled Hyungwon’s number and after a couple rings a familiar voice picked up. “ _You’re home already?_ ”

“Yes, I’m better than Cinderella. I made it before midnight,” she smiled softly and clicked her lighter to light up the joint.

“ _Are you smoking again?_ ” he asked me, but there was no judgement in his voice.

Sera took a hit and held her breath for a couple of seconds before exhaling in one long go. “Yeah.”

“ _Care to share?_ ” Suddenly his voice sounded distant.

“Are you in the car?”

“Just got in. Should I drive to your place?”

“No. I have practice early in the morning. The fight is on Friday,” Sera told him, even though she was hella sure he knew. He always knew.

“ _I will be there, cheering on you. Always_ ,” he responded with a soft voice and she heard the clicking sound of a turn signal. “ _What’s on your mind, Sera?_ ”

She huffed another hit in and out before answering. She enjoyed these slow conversations with Hyungwon when she arrived home. At first she didn’t think he was serious about her calling him whenever she got home after finishing her day, but after fairly harshly scolding her a couple of times that she didn’t call him (even though it was 3 or 4AM) she started the routine of just calling him. If he didn’t pick up, it meant he was in deep slumber and would find a missed call from her - but she called and that was important to him. Sera found comfort in his soft caring voice and their talks became the much desired routine in their unpredictable lives. “Kihyun’s plan, mainly.”

“ _Are you worried that more people would get hurt?_ ”

“Yes and no. I’m not worried about people outside the family, it’s their own fault for not being on the right side of things, but I am worried the all of us will get hurt. Not only physically but emotionally and mentally as well. I don’t want anyone I care about to get hurt. What has happened so far is already enough.”

“ _I know. I did consider not agreeing to Hyunwoo’s addition of the Jooheon guy, but he said you agreed, so I couldn’t really protest_ ,” he chuckled softly and silence followed. A comfortable one, where they kept each other company rather than expected the other to talk. She listened to him drive and he listened to her breathe.

It’s been a long time since Hyungwon and Sera became like this, he’s been like that ever since they’ve met for the first time, though he did admit that back then he was much shier about talking to her so comfortably. A year after they met, Hyungwon finally told Sera he had feelings for her that surpassed the line of ‘like’ and she had turned him down, he became comfortable around her without the necessity of being shy. Minhyuk has joined Kihyun and Sera first, shortly after him - Hyunwoo and only 2 weeks later Hyungwon. Minhyuk has always been affectionate with Sera, kissing her on the cheek, hugging her close and braiding her chin length hair among other things. When Minhyuk had started to be like that with her at the beginning, Sera shunned him away but then she understood - she reminded him of someone important that wasn’t in his life anymore, not by looks or character but just by being. At first Hyungwon was a little jealous, but as they passed the confession, he became just like Minhyuk - soft affection giving. His was softer though, much more loving and caring than Minhyuk’s, which was sibling-like and just cute. Over 10 years later they were still the same.

The question of why Sera turned him down all those years ago… the reason has been the same every single day since then. He has shown Sera nothing but kindness and heartfelt love and so has she, every day.

 _But my reason never changes. And probably never will. That’s the real sad part about it,_ Sera thought to herself.

“I’m sure we will discover both his and Wonho’s charms as the time rolls.”

“ _Don’t forget about Changkyun_ ,” Hyungwon reminded Sera.

“I didn’t forget about him. It’s a given, Minhyuk said Kihyun might wants him in more ways that just for the plan and as far as I know, he hasn’t even had a one night stand in a fairly long time. I just feel bad for him,” Sera shrugged, which she knew Hyungwon couldn’t see and took another hit.

“ _He’s had a couple, you know, he doesn’t have to tell you everything about himself_.”

“And why would he tell you then?” she investigated, genuinely curious and amused.

“ _Man talks? That’s all I’m gon say about it_ ,” Hyungwon laughed it off.

Sera inhaled the sweet smoke. “The city is quiet tonight,” she said her thought out loud while exhaling the last of the joint.

She heard a soft sigh before Hyungwon spoke with the most beautiful voice. “Y _ou want me to come over to help wake up your neighbours?_ ” he offered and chuckled and the end.

Sera scoffed but smiled contently on her empty balcony. “Just go home, Chae Hyungwon.”

“ _You break my heart_ ,” he said but there was a loving emotion behind his words.

“Every day.”

“ _And every day I let you_.”

“I’m sorry,” she let out in a small voice but she knew he could hear it because another soft sigh came over through the call connection.

“ _Good night, Sera_.”

“Good night.”

This was their ‘always’.

|Hyunwoo POV|

Hyunwoo told Jooheon to come pick him up on Thursday at 8AM at the bottom of his apartment building. The plan was to get Jooheon to the gym Sera was training in for her fight the next day. He wanted to introduce Jooheon to Sera and also go over the split protection plan of Changkyun, who actually went by ‘I.M’ in the hacking world (an interesting piece of information that he thought would surprise Minhyuk but, of course, he’d known about it when the oldest called him), and Wonho on their way to Jooheon’s first official business as a part of their family.

Jooheon arrived 5 minutes before time and Hyunwoo saw him from the window of his apartment, were he’d been standing for a while, desiring to see what time would Jooheon arrive. Hyunwoo hasn’t finished his coffee and he definitely wasn’t in a rush to do so. Slowly moving around his spacious apartment he finished the coffee and put the small cup into the dishwasher along with 10 others. There was nothing else in the dishwasher.

Calmly, he put his shoes on and checked his hair in the mirror casually before grabbing his wallet, keys and phone. The door closed behind him and Hyunwoo silently waited for the elevator to reach his floor.

Once he arrived at the lobby he took his time to chat with the guard of the building for a couple of polite minutes and then finally moved towards the building entrance/exit.

Jooheon was waiting inside the car with his phone in his hand. It was a sleek black new Mustang GT500, that didn’t look like it could rip a damage, but Hyunwoo very well knew how Jooheon felt about his cars. Not only he was the most responsible driver Hyunwoo had ever sat next to, he was also fast and effective. The best getaway driver, as it had been proven before.

_But that’s a story for a different time._

Hyunwoo opened the passenger door and sat into the comfortable seat. “Head to the Mad Dog Gym.”

Jooheon only nodded and the roaring engine sounded from underneath the hood. The car moved swiftly and effortlessly under Jooheon’s skilled hands and they reached the destination sooner than Hyunwoo has ever managed, not getting stuck in any traffic jam.

Hyunwoo motioned to Jooheon to park in from of the gym on reserved parking, even though Jooheon looked somewhat unsure whether he could or not. When they got out of the car, Jooheon followed the older to the inside of the gym.

The gym wasn’t small, but not large either. There were high ceilings but little natural lighting and a stuffy air that smelled of sweat and also blood. This gym was legendary for keeping up with the ‘blood, sweat and tears’ saying.

Hyunwoo led Jooheon to the massive cage in the middle of the hall that Jooheon knew to be a fighters’ octagon.

“So how do you feel about meeting the one and only?” Hyunwoo asked after keeping silent for so long.

“Nervous,” Jooheon admitted unwillingly. He did feel a little nervous and uneasy about meeting Ryu Sera in a fighters’ gym, he was on her turf right now anyway.

“Don’t worry, I think she’s going to like you,” the older said in a reassuring voice.

“You think so?” That got Jooheon’s hopes up. He really wanted Sera to like him. He met her only a couple of time and when so, it was very very brief. He doubted she even remembered him.

“Yeeeaah… maybe… hopefully,” Hyunwoo dragged out and shrugged nonchalantly.

“Now I’m scared,” Jooheon swallowed with his dry throat but kept on following laughing Hyunwoo towards the cage where he noticed a short girl - Sera, standing opposite a tall buffed man, who kept throwing punches at her. Her bottom lip was cut and stained with blood already.

Then, she was throwing punches and kicks at the man mercilessly, hitting him in the face, solar plexus and stomach in quick succession and with such strength that the guys face twisted in pain and he folded over after the last hook, which opened his back and Sera drove her elbow in between his shoulder blade with precision and force that everyone could hear a tiny snap a split second before the guy landed on the floor face down.

Had a bell not sounded through the gym, Hyunwoo knew Sera would jump over the limp body and bring him into some kind of a clutch until he tapped out or until he went unconscious. Sera fighting in an octagon has always been quite a spectacle. She loved playing with her opponents, while they knew their best chance to win would be to get rid of her quickly - she never let them, toyed with them like a cat with a mouse and then finished them off brutally at the end of 2nd or 3rd round, depending on how much fun she had. Fun? Hyunwoo would equal fun to how much damage she caused without getting disqualified, which would often not only come to subtly broken bones, dislocated fingers and other ‘subtle’ injuries the judges either overlooked or didn’t see. There was a case where she broke a rib of her opponent and when the poor girl finally wanted to tap out, Sera didn’t let her, instead she brought her ruthlessly to the ground and got her opponent in a lock where she had direct access to push the broken rib further and punctured the lung. The girl now avoided Sera like a plague.

“I think I should be scared,” Jooheon swallowed again and Hyunwoo put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

“She would never hurt one out of the family. Not even when Minhyuk is annoying and we all wish she would headlock him.”

“So I might have nothing to worry about?” Jooheon peeped out shyly.

“I never said that,” Hyunwoo smiled mysteriously and walked closer to the octagon, shouting Sera’s name.

Sera’s head turned to them and she slowly stepped to the fence of the cage, squatting down. “You’re Jooheon?” she asked her gaze looking Jooheon up and down assessing him. When Jooheon nodded without making a sound she told him: “Get in.”

“Hmmm?” a scared hum came out of Jooheon.

“Get in,” she repeated in a haste manner. “And take of your shoes.”

Hyunwoo tapped Jooheon on the top of his head, the younger seemed to be scared to the gut but Hyunwoo knew Sera wouldn’t hurt him. She had her priorities elsewhere.

Jooheon walked up the steps to the octagon and entered the cage, quickly getting out of the way of the coach and Sera’s limply walking sparring partner. He stepped closer to him and Sera took off her gloves, showing the hot pink tape underneath. Plopping on the ground in a cross-legged sit she started to unravel the tape slowly, while Jooheon still nervously stood around not knowing what to do. Sera looked up to him and Hyunwoo couldn’t hear what she said but reading from her lips she told the young driver to sit. After that, Hyunwoo turned away to get himself another cup of coffee, knowing this conversation was not for him.

Jooheon walked over to Hyunwoo, who very obviously displayed his boredom by laughing at cute cat videos. As Jooheon approached he cleared his throat to make his presence known to the older.

“So what did you talk about?” Hyunwoo was curious about what topic Sera might have brought up. Because if he knew her well, which he did, it could be about the importance of safe sex and all; or she could just ask if he’s the masochist kind of person that doesn’t drink coffee; or she could completely casually bring up how to pull one’s intestines out of their body to show them in front of their eyes - well unless they pass out from pain or fear. Sera was just that type of a person and Hyunwoo always felt hurt and sad when he thought of the fact she knew all this gore related stuff before she even hit puberty.

But, then he wasn’t any better, when it came to protecting one of his own Hyunwoo would reach great extent and wouldn’t shy away from practices that would present the other party how ruthless and merciless he could be, even though his usual softer appearance would argue the opposite. However unlike Sera’s, his conscious wasn’t removed by a monster.

“Ummm, Sera asked me if I know what family means.”

 _Tricky question_ , Hyunwoo thought to himself, but he was interested in what Jooheon offered as answer to Sera’s question. “And what did you respond?”

“I said that family to me means that I have someone to rely on and I am to be relied on; that I have someone to be responsible for; to work hard for; that I have someone to love and that someone will love me. Family means to protect and be protected, at all times and with no exceptions. It doesn’t matter if you’re born into the family or accepted - you fight for your family whichever kind it is,” Jooheon said and Hyunwoo could feel that there was experience behind his words. He only nodded his head in acknowledgement of a good answer. “Then she said that my thinking was not wrong, that to her ‘family’ isn’t defined by last names and blood; that those things didn’t work in our world. She said sees it being defined by commitment and by love. For her it means showing up whenever needed and when going gets tough; having each other’s back; choosing to love each other rather than being compelled to do so by blood, because being blood related means shit. It’s loyalty, respect and devotion even on the days when you want to kill each other. It means never giving up on each other. No one gets left behind or forgotten.”

Hyunwoo kept his gaze on Jooheon the entire time he was speaking. Sera had never voiced what family meant to her, so it was interesting to hear what was going on in her mind and heart as she rarely revealed those to anyone else other than Hyungwon and Kihyun, she thought feelings made her vulnerable, easily targeted. “She’s right. In our world, some blood isn’t thicker than water. Especially for her and Kihyun.”

“I know. I don’t know the others’ stories, but I know mine and some of yours. And that is enough for me to know that I have finally found my own family.”

“What are you guys doing here being all gloomy and shit?” Sera’s voice sounded behind the two. “Let’s go have breakfast. I hope you drive as well as I heard, Heoney.”

|Kihyun POV|

Kihyun never worked late on Fridays, especially not on those that Sera had a fight. Fridays were days that Kihyun hated being at work the most, even though technically he was always working because if the boss called him to go deal with something urgent he would have to run to do what he was told. And, oh, how much Kihyun hated that he had to come running when Ryu Sungmoon called, but it was necessary - all Kihyun did was necessary for the plan that he started brewing when he was 11 and found Sera at her vulnerable age of 10 crying because she got beaten by her teacher the day before after she missed a clear head-shot on a pig that was her target. He had had some plan in his mind before that, but after he’d seen even more from Ryu Sungmoon he became cemented on making this plan work. At that point in time Kihyun didn’t know how to get to the result he wanted to achieve, however both his and Sera’s goals were the same. Sera had trusted Kihyun like a little sister trusted her not too older brother when he promised to take care of her after she’d been hurt. At first Kihyun didn’t think he would grow attached to the little girl that came under his wings but he came to love her, flaws and all. If he was ever to put his death into someone’s hands it would be Sera’s. His life could be handed to any member of his family but with his death he only trusted her.

Now that all of the missing pieces of the plan have joined the picture it was time for the clock to start ticking, but Kihyun knew he had to be careful with how fast the countdown went. There was no way he could ever raise suspicion, so he would rather tread carefully, even if it meant postponing the D-day.

Kihyun got into his car shortly after his meeting with one of the bigger international clients and headed to the university Hyunwoo gave him directions to. The drive was short and finding the institute had been easier than Kihyun had thought at first. Finding Changkyun, though, might just be the more difficult thing.

So Kihyun did what Kihyun always does when he didn’t know something about someone. He dialed Minhyuk’s number. “Min?”

“ _Ki?_ ” Minhyuk picked up from the other side, mirroring Kihyun’s voice without greeting him too.

“What is Changkyun’s phone number?”

“ _Why?_ ”

“Because I’m at his university and I came to pick him up for the pre-fight early dinner, which I think you have forgotten about.”

“ _I haven’t forgotten, but I’m still stuck at the bar because one girl dropped out tonight and when I told her she should get her own substitute she had the audacity to tell the manager Kim it’s my job_ ,” Minhyuk’s rage over this showed in the speed he used to voice this sentence.

Kihyun laughed shortly. “I guess you were listening to the speaker phone again with manager Kim?”

“ _Of course, I wondered what kind of bitch drops a Friday night when the pay is the highest. Anyway, no, I have not forgotten about the dinner, I just need to deal with this. Hopefully I won’t be too late_ ,” Minhyuk sighs and Kihyun could imagine him tapping his temples like he always did when he was annoyed.

“Okay. And… Changkyun’s number?”

“ _Yeah. I’ll text it to you_.”

“Cheers. See you there, Min.”

“See you.” Minhyuk hung up and just couple moments later a contact share card popped up the Kihyun’s chat with Minhyuk. The contact was ‘ _Kyunnie ^^_ ’. Kihyun smirked at how fast Minhyuk got familiar with the new youngest member of the family. Up until now Sera had been the youngest, but the 2 new members Jooheon and Changkyun were both younger. Kihyun was surprised when he’d found out that Hoseok was older than him and Minhyuk.

He dialed the new number and after 3 rings a deep voice came from the other side. “ _Hello?_ ”

“Come to the front of the main building,” Kihyun said, getting out of his car and noticing all the stares he was given by both genders of students. He guessed guys looked more at his custom paint ashy silver Aston Martin DBS Superleggera and girls, he thought looked at both him and the car, assuming he as quite the catch.

“ _Sorry, but who is this?_ ” Changkyun’s voice sounded, slightly annoyed at the request some ‘stranger’ made at him.

“Kihyun. I know you know my voice,” Kihyun chuckled at Changkyun’s attempt.

“ _Whatever… why should I?_ ”

“Because I’m waiting for you outside. I also know Minhyuk talked to you. So, please, kindly get your ass here in less than 4 minutes,” Kihyun said and hung up to leave no room for arguing. He leaned against the side of the car and looked towards the university. He wasn’t sure how much the tuition was, but sure it couldn’t have been the best school the city had to offer. Kihyun contemplated asking Changkyun if he was up to changing to a better university but then he noticed a familiar figure running to him from the main entrance to the building he was parked in front of.

“Get in,” Kihyun said as soon as Changkyun approached him and he could be sure his word would be heard. He circled the car again and got into the driver’s seat. When Changkyun leaned down to the window but didn’t get in, Kihyun rolled the window down to hear the complaint.

“Why?” Changkyun asked but from his voice Kihyun could guess he wanted to, just played hard to get.

“Just do it, kid,” Kihyun smirked.

“I’m not a kid,” Changkyun protested and the pout on his face made him so adorable in Kihyun’s eyes.

“You’re younger and a part of the family now. Which makes you a kid technically, unless… you want to prove my assumption wrong,” Kihyun offered with a raised brow, arrogant smirk and his eyes raked Changkyun’s body up and down.

“I’d rather not,” Changkyun scoffed, but got in the car and once the door was closed he added quietly with a playful voice, “at least not here.”

Kihyun chuckled softly at the hacker’s attitude and drove off.

“I thought we’re going to the fight,” Changkyun noted after a moment of silence during which only the sound of the car’s engine could be heard.

“We are, but before every fight we have a tradition of early family dinner. At least you’ll get to meet everyone,” Kihyun explained.

“Wonho too?”

“Yes, Hoseok was picked up by Hyunwoo and Jooheon about 5 minutes ago. Hyunwoo said he looked scared shitless. Did you, by any chance, forget to tell him something?” Kihyun’s eyes gleamed mischievously while he suspected Changkyun.

“Well, I did leave out the part about the family. You see, Wonho would have backed out if he had more than 5 minutes to think about it. Do you smoke?”

“Occasionally… only if we’re putting some new goods or premium stuff on to the market. Cigarettes - no.”

“Do you mind if I do?”

“In my car?”

“Yes.”

“Yes. I mind. Sorry, you can smoke when we get there.”

Changkyun rummaged through the side panel and the box panel in front of the passenger’s seat. He pulled out a tiny glass pipe and a weed grinder. “You apparently smoke here.”

“Weed doesn’t stink up everything and washes out pretty quickly, whether it’s the smell on your hands or on your clothes,” Kihyun told him his experiences.

“Really?” Changkyun looked like he didn’t want to believe it at first.

“Yes. Why do you think I don’t smell like I smoked 15 minutes ago? Plus I didn't smoke too much,” Kihyun glanced at him with yet another grin, this one a little secretive, a little playful and a little arrogant. Changkyun stared at Kihyun a little longer than he maybe should have. He seemed mesmerized by Kihyun’s pure beauty and kind smiling face that he first saw when he entered his office 2 days ago. That genuine smiling face was now mingling together in his mind with this bad-boy smirk Kihyun had on his face and Changkyun realized that this may or may not cause him a very fast heart attack. It was weird how fast emotions like lust can cloud up one’s mind.

When Changkyun finally found his voice he chose to go down the easy path. “You did?”

“Of course,” Kihyun nodded, turning his attention back on the road.

“Do you have any left? I’m not a fan of violence, so I was thinking of hitting up a friend of mine for some to get through the fights,” Changkyun also turned his gaze to what was going on in front of the car.

Kihyun inhaled deeply and Changkyun felt the atmosphere in the car shift. “From now on, only hit me up. For everything - weed, money, food, clothes. Anything. You’re a part of the family.”

“Money, food and clothes, I’ll skip. I have my dignity, thank you very much. But weed - I’ll take you up on that offer.”

“Seriously, anything you need,” Kihyun insisted again.

“Okay, well… then don’t be surprised with what might come up,” Changkyun smiled, but his tone was playful and teasing. Kihyun’s body reacted to what came out of Changkyun very quickly and a flush of lust hit him like a tsunami. _This is going to be one interesting night,_ Kihyun thought to himself as he parked in front of a rather dodgy looking place. “We’re here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still a little slow, but Jooheon appeared and the family is complete now. ^^ Next time the pace picks up after Sera's fight! Please drop me a comment of what you think of the chapter and a kudo would really be great too if you like the story so far. (￣y▽￣)╭ <3
> 
> Thank you for reading ^^


	3. The Raid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family is now in full formation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: some minor violence
> 
> hope you enjoy ^^

|Kihyun POV|

When Kihyun and Changkyun walked into the fairly dodgy looking place (which at first Kihyun didn’t even want to call a restaurant), he noticed that all other 6 members of the family were already there. He turned to the owner, who was currently working in the kitchen, most likely already preparing the others’ orders. He exchanged greetings and pleasantries and moved on to the back where the auntie always kept a table for them. Next to him Changkyun politely bowed to the owner and Kihyun smiled at how well-mannered the young hacker is.

“ _Yoo Kihyun!_ ” Kihyun heard his name coming out of Minhyuk’s mouth again. “You’re late. Everyone is already here!” Minhyuk, who apparently just finished tightly braiding Sera’s chin length hair, only got a nastily annoyed look from Kihyun.

Truth be told, Kihyun was a little shocked that the whole crew had already arrived. “And how the hell is that possible? Hyunwoo, you told me that Jooheon and you picked up Wonho 5 minutes later than I picked up Changkyun.”

Hyunwoo gave Jooheon a conspicuous look and Jooheon smiled in return making his dimples stand out. Then Hyunwoo just shrugged and left the matter uncommented, even though Kihyun was really curious to know about this exchange. _What the hell am I missing?_

“Changkyun, what the fuck?” Wonho said in a shocked voice and he had a little bit of a scared face.

Changkyun took a breath in to explain but Sera was faster. “Stop saying we kidnapped you, please. This is the best pho place in town. Take it as if we took you out to eat, hm?”

Wonho gave her a wide eyed look and then turned to Changkyun again, whose only words were: “What she said.”

The auntie arrived with their orders and took one from Kihyun and Changkyun as they sat next to each other. Once their food came out as well, Sera took the lead in starting the conversation again, since she couldn’t eat food like this before her fight and obviously didn’t want to sit in silence.

“So did we salvage the plantations in South Americas?” she turned to Kihyun, who nodded and took his time to chew and swallow first with a delighted hum before answering.

“For about 1 million.”

“Nice,” she smiled and sipped on her favorite jasmine tea. The rest, except confused Changkyun and Wonho, nodded in acknowledgement and kept on slurping their soups.

“Min, how are the sales?” Kihyun asked and took another big bite of his food.

“Slow, but steady,” Minhyuk swallowed his food and replied in his business voice, which Kihyun knew Minhyuk used only when he was not content with the work he had done, but Kihyun decided to wait for Minhyuk’s explanation before asking anymore questions. “It’s about 1.5 million since the last fight 4 months ago. Could be much better but right now I would rather lay low.”

“I agree. The revenue is okay, don’t worry about it. It’s not like you haven’t done enough as it is. I’d rather see all of us safe and out of the rain rather than have some extra 500k,” Kihyun told Minhyuk. Changkyun and Wonho haven’t said a word, while this (for them) strange conversation has been going on. Kihyun knew both of them had no idea about what was going on and what they were talking about, but there was a reason behind it and Kihyun made it his goal for the night to catch Changkyun’s attention and put him through a small test along with Wonho. But all in good time. “How are things on your front, Sera?”

“The coast it clear,” she responded ambiguously. Sometimes even Kihyun didn’t know what her codes meant, but had she encountered any trouble she would definitely say something wasn’t right, so Kihyun trusted her judgement. “Hyungwon’s, however, is interesting though.”

“Oh, really? Do tell,” Kihyun smirked at the doctor and Hyungwon’s face mirrored his.

“Just today I got money wired for medical equipment that will, due to a tragic accident, never arrive... unfortunately. And since it’s for the personal use of Mr. Ryu, I’m sure I’ll have to place the order again,” he shrugged innocently before continuing. “But it seems that the money he wired me has been lost somewhere along the way of the transaction and I can’t get the hold of it anymore. If he truly wants the equipment, he will have to pay for it again.”

Minhyuk laughed at the playful feign innocence of Hyungwon. “But medical equipment is expensive… How much?”

“With all the medication, onto which I have put a margin, it’s about good 3 million.”

Kihyun’s eyebrows rose comically almost to his perfect hairline. That is one of the biggest numbers that has even been said at the table. The family has always been careful about their personal businesses, so lower amounts were normal and were considered safe in the first place. He just hoped that Hyungwon had taken all the necessary pre-cautions. Kihyun’s eye jumped to Sera, who was stupidly smiling over her tea with a very pleased look on her face.

“I think you’ve won today, Hyungwon,” Hyunwoo took a bottle of beer into his hand and raised to cheer over the table with Hyungwon, who smirked as arrogantly as Hyungwon could. Which, let’s be honest was nothing much - the guy was as far from arrogant as a newborn baby most of the time.

“Doesn’t hurt to be the best once in while, does it?” Sera threw Hyungwon’s way and he smiled at her lovingly. Kihyun just wished Sera hadn’t been so…

“And finally - Hyunwoo?” Kihyun decided to skip Jooheon as he just became a part of the family and probably didn’t even have a contribution or know what to say.

“Well, the boss ordered a couple of new cars, but I’ll let the prices and margins to be handled by Jooheon from now on as I think he can make the revs better than me at this with his contacts,” he nodded and motioned with his hand to Jooheon, who grinned and kept on chewing his food. “And after pressuring him, thanks for the help though, Sera; there will be new weapon distribution to most of the higher hands in and outside the city, all throughout the family. But since I don’t know the fixed price yet, I’ll have to wait with my numbers until the next fight.”

“Wait,” Wonho’s voice sounded and all eyes turned to him. He looked confused as hell and barely touched his food. “What are you guys even talking about?”

“Wonho, I told you,” Changkyun said under his breath and over the table.

“Not that they’re-“

“If you say the word ‘steal’,” Minhyuk cut Wonho off mid-speech. “I’m going to hurt you where it’s gonna resonate.” Kihyun choked on his soup and Sera obviously bit her lip painfully just to not start laughing. Imagining Minhyuk hurting someone was so funny because for his whole life Minhyuk had been all talk, always. He would never hurt anyone with anything else than words. But coming to think of it now - words can be more painful than a dagger in the back, so…

“Yeah, it’s called earning money,” Sera continued for Minhyuk nonchalantly.

“But aren’t you ‘ _earning_ ’ it from one of your own?” Wonho protested.

“Changkyun, have you really not told him anything?” Jooheon turned to Changkyun in disbelief.

“He would’ve backed out,” Changkyun called out in his defense. “He’s like a really honest and genuine guy. Who is also a hacker.”

“So you lied to me…” Wonho sighed and his shoulders slumped in disappointment with his younger best friend.

“Cause I need you, man,” Changkyun explained. “Seriously. I am where I am thanks to you. Thanks to you I am I.M.”

Wonho sighed heavily and after a moment of silence around the table his face showed agreement. “Okay, but I need to know the full plan then, from now on.”

“Okay, so before we start explaining and outlining, we need to get one thing straight - we’re _not_ earning money from one of our own,” Sera emphasized and Wonho’s eyes showed he somehow somewhat understood the base concept of the plan. Kihyun liked how quick Wonho seemed to be and how he could think on his feet. At that point Kihyun knew that him and Wonho are going to get on well, since he looked like he had a protective streak in him just like Kihyun himself.

“Yeah, when we speak of _the_ family…” Minhyuk began.

“We don’t mean the _Ryu_ family,” Hyungwon continued.

“ _We_ are the family,” Kihyun finished.

**««6 MONTHS LATER»»**

|Changkyun POV|

Changkyun’s life has changed tremendously in the last 6 months. Half a year ago, he was a lone wolf with one partner in crime, his ride or die, brother from another mother Lee Hoseok, or how more people knew him (or didn’t know him) for his work - Wonho, who after the first dinner told everyone to just call him by his given name, not wanting a face associated with his nickname.

But then one day Ryu Sera appeared in the library when he was ‘studying’ for mid-term exams, but more like he was making his location a little less known while breaking a couple of firewalls of the university’s ‘safe’ sites for professors. Someone asked him to take a small peak at their grades and check whether something can be done about the last exam they blew. Since the work had been spare back then, he took the opportunity for a little more cash. I.M and Wonho were popular unspoken names on campus, when it came to this particular field.

However outside the campus proverbial walls, just a week before Sera paid her first visit, the two managed to hack the national bank, which was a like a small challenge they set for themselves. To their extreme surprise, it was ridiculously easy. The two thought it would be guarded better, but they even managed to do it like they have never been there and no one knew, except them (because they had a proof) and someone, to whom they have let a message in the program. Both Hoseok and Changkyun thought they would get out of it unnoticed but somehow the family found out.

Yes, Changkyun called them his family now. And so did Hoseok. 6 months ago, he never thought he would have a family after his own sadly left the world of the living in an unfortunate car accident when he was 15. First, Hoseok became his only friend in high school when he was a geeky lanky kid with a high-end laptop. When Hoseok left to university 2 years earlier than Changkyun, he worked his ass off to get the best grades he could to reach a scholarship at the same university. And the rest was pretty much history.

Even though Changkyun called the new 6 people in his life family, he only really-really met with Hyunwoo, Jooheon, Sera and Minhyuk the most. Hyungwon was busy working his medical practice and tending to the health of Ryu Sungmoon, whom Changkyun has never met but he wasn’t opposing this fact in the very least - he has heard enough stories about the cruel man. And Kihyun (who, by the way, Changkyun found both godly handsome and cunningly intelligent) was also very busy running both the official side of the Ryu family business and the underground drug ‘cartel’, but he knew well Kihyun hated that particular word. Sera was usually the one, who brought Changkyun cash, which he needed to pay rent and cover his expenses, but she always brought way too much and way too often, so Changkyun has smartly used the extra money to buy stocks and invest for the future revenues. Jooheon often came to just hang out, as they were similar in ages but very different in experiences. Hyunwoo either came with Jooheon or took him and Hoseok out to eat, especially when Hoseok started joining Hyunwoo in the gym, which is why Changkyun started calling them ‘gym rats’ and thanks to a family dinner (and Minhyuk) it stayed around. Speaking of Minhyuk, he was most of the time in his bar and Changkyun often found solace there on the nights he just wanted to listen someone vent and rant and not think about his own problems and clear his head, which was somewhat more often than before he met his 6 extra people, because Kihyun had been giving him and Hoseok a lot of work that was a part of the preparation for the final stage of the plan.

The family still met up at in whole at least once a month for dinner or drinks, where in the first five minutes they discussed revenues, to which even Changkyun and Hoseok could contribute now that they had some money, ability _and_ time to play magic with the stock market. It was always a merry gathering filled with fond moments that Changkyun held quite dear to his heart these days, even though he knew very well that, from the very moment he agreed to go with Sera to Kihyun’s office 6 months ago, his life might be unexpectedly cut short. It was worth the risk to him and Hoseok, too. He loved that the gatherings have always flowed with everyone teasing each other and getting on each others’ nerves but as soon as there was something serious to deal with, they were all there for each other. And these people have welcomed him and Hoseok as if they have always been a part of their lives. Ever since the day of his parents’ deaths, for the first time Changkyun felt happiness every day.

And tonight’s pre-fight dinner’s only difference was that they all knew each other well, so everyone joked around; both Hoseok and Changkyun contributed to the family’s future revenues, so they could join the conversation; and Sera’s fight was this time against a fighter called the Flying Witch.

|Sera POV|

“Please don’t get hurt too much,” Hyungwon said looking into Sera’s eyes from below since she sat on a high chair, as he wrapped her hands in boxer’s tape. At first the coach protested against Hyungwon doing it, saying that she should only be concentrating on the fight rather than chatting with someone before going into the cage. Sera quickly convinced him otherwise. It didn’t matter if Hyungwon came to do her tape or not. She was always the same in the cage.

“Why do your eyes say that there is something else you want to tell me?” Sera asked in a soft voice, knowing what’s coming but still wanted to hear it nonetheless.

Hyungwon sighed softly and glanced up from the hot pink tape. “I wanted to say: ‘Please don’t get hurt at all, make it as quick as possible and don’t let her touch you.’ But I know you and know what is going on in your head during a fight. You love a good fight, so I don’t want to even try to take the fun away from you.”

Yes, Sera knew he was going to say this, but it was beautiful to hear that there was someone in world, who cared about someone like her. A ruthless person; a merciless killer; a blood thirsty monster. “Do you want me to not get hurt at all today?”

“Yes,” he said truthfully and his smile appeared even wider and kinder.

“I will try,” she smiled softly back, but Hyungwon shook his head a little.

“More than anything I hope you can have fun during the fight, as I said, I know how much you love these fights. Plus Kihyun has his money bet on the second round K.O. So, don’t get hurt too much and have fun,” he finished wrapping her hands, stood up and then bowed down a little, took her face into his hands gently and gingerly kissed her on the forehead. Sera could feel all the love Hyungwon had for her pour into the kiss. For a moment there she thought she was worth loving.

And then the voice in her head appeared again…

_You actually think you deserve love? After everything you’ve done? After all the blood you’ve spilled? After all that pain you made people suffer through? After all those lives you’ve ended with your own two hands for your uncle? You are a Ryu through and through. There is no place for love in your life. You are not worth it._

And again, she listened to it. Like she always did.

“Hey, hey,” Hyungwon’s soft low voice sounded, his eyes searching for something in hers. “Where did you go? What is going on in that head of yours?”

“Nothing,” Sera shook her head a little and smiled back as best as she could to hide any emotion that could be visible on her face. There was no way she was going to tell him and make his life even more burdened by her existence.

“Okay, I’ll leave it, but know one thing, Sera… I know when you’re lying to me.”

Sera hopped off the high chair, which has put her into even a lower position than before and looking up at Hyungwon she said: “Don’t worry; there won’t be much to patch up tonight.”

Getting into the cage hasn’t always made Sera feel as calm as it did for the last couple of fights. She used to be angry. Angry at herself for having become a monster at a young age and failing the little she could remember from her parents’ life philosophy, which was nowhere near violent and brutal problem dealing methods. Angry at her uncle for breaking her, damaging her beyond repair. Angry at Kihyun for making a fool proof plan, that just took so long to finish. And finally angry at Hyungwon for never giving up on her, for losing his time with her.

But not anymore. Sera has found peace in the roaring voices of the crowd; in the strikes given or received; in the metallic taste of blood.

The first bell rang, giving the starting signal to the first round with the Flying Witch. It was the second time they met in the cage - she had requested a revenge match. But little did she know she was going to lose this one too.

They circled each other for no less than 5 seconds as the Flying Witch leapt into the air trying to throw a punch from a higher spot, but Sera managed to land her first fist right into her unprotected stomach. _How stupid - exposing yourself like that…_

That knocked her to the ground kind of top of Sera, tackling her to the ground. She knew her opponent wasn’t as good at grappling and wrestling as she was so as soon as she tried to untangle from her and get up Sera quickly pulled her down by grabbing her by the waist and slamming her underneath her. She could’ve finished her than but that would be no fun, would it now?

Plus Kihyun had his money on the second round, so… _it was play time_.

After clutching one of the Witch’s shoulder against her knee, causing it to pop a little bit she screamed in pain and it could have been over, but Sera released her with a laugh and backed off. As she was hopping on the mat in the octagon, the Witch looked at her, eyes mirroring her raging emotions. And she was most likely doing that one thing that the coach always said when Sera started fighting - _angry people never win the fight, they become too hot headed._

She hurled at Sera with everything she got, trying to take a punch, but Sera remembered promising Hyungwon she wouldn’t get hurt tonight so she blocked all of them, trying to mock her, humiliate her in front of the whole arena. In between her grunts caused by missed punches and kicks Sera heard the crowd crack up when she slapped her opponent. Like a proper, well positioned slap that just rings your ears with that open hand to cheek skin contact. Sera couldn’t help herself but to giggle at the opponent’s facial expression, too. She reminded her of a school nerd, who had just been bullied.

The bell finally rang to end the first round and Sera just sighed heavily, not feeling any satisfaction. So she just went back to her corner, where normally a coach would stand but after her second fight ever Sera had banned him from standing next to the cage. He always had some stupid shit to say even though she had been winning. Frankly, Sera didn’t want to boast, but… the Mad Dog (as she was called) never lost. However, she had been disqualified many times for improper fighting. It could be said that some people thought she was a little too violent even for the octagon. And then, Sera was yet to find a woman that was worth fighting for real and not only playing with.

The break has ended with another ring of the bell and it was the second round. The one she could win in. Finally.

Before the Flying Witch could even grasp what was going on, Sera already knocked her to the mats and grappled her on the ground and as she fought against her, Sera noticed the perfect opportunity for a kimura. Her opponent struggled to get out of the hold for no more than 5 seconds before Sera got annoyed and pushed her hand further, almost to the brink of being broken, and only then the Witch finally, _cleverly_ , decided to tap out. For a hundredth of a second Sera felt the lust to not let go when her opponent tapped her with her free hand. In that hundredth Sera really wanted to break her bone, but decided to side with her better judgment and not do that to her, _again._

|Kihyun POV|

Kihyun heard Minhyuk’s laughter over the crowd’s shouts and cheers. “Again?!” he laughed, clutching his side next to cheering Hyunwoo and Jooheon. Next to Kihyun, Changkyun looked slightly disturbed by what was happening in the cage. And next to Changkyun was Hoseok, despite his bigger built was apparently a pacifist, even after seeing his second fight. Kihyun found the shade of green his face was in rather amusing, but decided not to say anything as there were many more for him to witness. And many of them would not take place in matted cages and with the rules of fighting in place. These fights are a children’s game compared to the real world outside, where it was ruled only by survival.

“I hope the Flying Witch learns not to pick fight with Sera again. She put her into kimura again after breaking her arm once. I really wish that will resonate with the poor girl until the day she retires,” Mihyuk kept on laughing with Hyunwoo, having his hand over Jooheon’s shoulders. Hyungwon was smiling contently, looking at the octagon as the referee announced the winner of the fight. Kihyun wondered what the two talked about before the fight, because Hyungwon rarely looked this pleased when it came to Sera fighting.

Kihyun turned to Changkyun with questioning eyes. “Is Hoseok going to be okay?”

“I think once we get out of here and give him a chance to breathe fresh air rather than this stale, blood and sweat soaked one, he might get over it… in like a half hour like last time,” Changkyun replied, already looking for a way out of the roaring current created by the crowd pushing to the cage for that one final fight, the most awaited one of the whole night. In tonight’s case, Sera’s fight was not the most awaited, when usually it was and people definitely went see the Mad Dog specifically.

“Okay, let’s get you out,” Kihyun took Hoseok by the shoulders, who in turn pushed by Changkyun from the back. The slid through the crowd and made it out to the outer hall that was bustling with life. Kihyun guided the two down the stairs and outside where little amount of people hung out now as everyone was chanting the names of the next fight’s contestants inside. “Can you sit down, Hoseok?”

The oldest of the trio just nodded and slumped down on the bench nearby. “That was horrible. I thought she was going to break her arm,” a quiet held back sob escaped Hoseok and Changkyun himself seemed somewhat disturbed by the events he had just witnessed.

Kihyun decided it would be better to say the truth rather than to baby the two hackers. “She would have. Had the Flying Witch not tapped, she would definitely walk out with a broken arm.”

“Oh my God,” Changkyun groaned in frustration. “You’re not making this better.”

“I never said I was going to make it better or that I am going to make it easy. Changkyun, this is how it is. I told you before, things might get nasty,” Kihyun reminded him of the conversation they had 6 months ago in the office. Changkyun only nodded and bent down to tend to Hoseok.

Kihyun’s phone rang with a notification. It was a text from Hyungwon saying he was taking Sera home to patch up a busted lip and take care of some bruises. He also mentioned that Minhyuk, Hyunwoo and Jooheon went further out to drink and if Kihyun and the two wanted to join them, the 3 guys were down.

For a moment Kihyun stood frozen, staring at the text. _Sera didn’t want to go drink after a fight? Something is weird,_ Kihyun thought to himself.

|Hyungwon POV|

Hyungwon drove swiftly from the arena to Sera’s place, which was not far from his own and felt like his own too. He spent so much time there, he felt way more comfort in her place than his own, that always reminded him of what he’s lost. A home he’d had but was taken from him.

Once the two arrived in Sera’s apartment the silence was more prominent than in the car, where Hyungwon had the radio on. It wasn’t strange that Sera was quiet after a fight, but Hyungwon was starting to feel a little uneasy, his instinct told him that something was off and 99% of time Hyungwon’s instinct when it came to Sera was correct.

“What’s going on?” he asked once he took his shoes of and made his way to the bathroom to take the medical kit he’d left there years ago and kept re-filling the damn thing with sutures, disinfection and other things that Sera usually ended up needing after any time she got into a fight, official or not.

“What do you mean?” she sat on the couch and waiting for Hyungwon to come next to her and take a look at the busted lip and bruises on her ribs.

“You never not go out after a fight, Sera. And you’re never this quiet. Something is up and, please, don’t tell me it’s nothing, because I know it’s something,” Hyungwon looked at her with a raised brow, half expecting there to be protest because she was just so headstrong and stubborn and had she ever decided not to tell someone something nothing would break her.

“I guess I’m just worried about tomorrow’s raid. I’m not sure it’s a smart decision to go after Ming family’s storages. I know they have been expanding closer and closer to the border of our blinds but I have a weird feeling about this,” she sighed heavily and leaned her forehead on Hyungwon’s shoulder.

Hyungwon’s brows knitted together in confusion. _There is a raid planned for tomorrow? To Ming family’s storage? What kind of a stupid sick bullshit is that?_ “What?” He lifted Sera’s face by her chin gently and looked her dead straight in the eye searching for the joke. “What the hell is this about?”

“Ryu Sungmoon called me just past lunch, telling me to get the people together for tomorrow early morning. Apparently he got some information about a new storage being set up in the blinds way too close to our rayon, saying it’s not acceptable for them to expand so close to us, that he’s basically trying to start a fight. I don’t know… I spent all afternoon before the dinner getting people together and pulling extras from behind the city borders. I felt like the telephone exchange,” she talked in a low tired voice, staring at Hyungwon’s confused face. But what Hyungwon saw was not just a tired beautiful girl with a busted lip and tightly braided hair, but also a woman he loved beyond going into something she was worried about and was extremely reluctant to do. And that made him scared, because Sera never shied away from an opportunity to feed her thirst for violence, which was a thing that Hyungwon really wanted to fix about her in the first place. Hyungwon always considered the possibilities of helping Sera overcome all that had been drilled into her since she had been little. He spent countless night researching psychology books and writing/reading emails to/from various psyche specialists in the field.

“Wait… but why didn’t you say something at the dinner?”

“Honestly, I didn’t want to think about it before the fight too much. I just wanted to get in to my zone and enjoy my time,” she sighed again as Hyungwon still kept frozen and baffled.

“And does Kihyun know?”

“I suppose he does, but maybe he didn’t want to bring it up during the dinner,” Sera shrugged and finally reached for the disinfectant and cotton swabs herself when Hyungwon just did nothing.

“Sera, I don’t think he knows about it,” Hyungwon shook his head and took the items from Sera’s hands into his own. “He would’ve talked about it with you and Hyunwoo at some point, don’t you think?”

She seemed to give it some thought, her eyes narrowing a little bit. “That’s not a bad point but I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“Okay, I’ll call Kihyun later. Let’s get this cleaned up first,” he said and poured the clear liquid over the sterile gauze he took out of it’s packaging. Sera straightened her spine and shoulders and fully turned to Hyungwon as he worked his way through her cut lip.

|Sera POV|

Waking up early in the morning was never Sera’s cup of tea. Not that she ever drank tea, but the point came across. And waking up early to do something she didn’t want to do, seemed to be one very often reoccurring event in her life. And it was all caused by Ryu Sungmoon.

Before Hyungwon left last night, he called Kihyun but he didn’t pick up, probably drinking somewhere with the rest, enjoying the night. Hyungwon walked out of Sera’s apartment worried and tired, but she assured him everything would be alright with a tired but genuine smile. That wasn’t something she did often so he did look a little more worried than before.

As soon as Sera woke up at 5AM, she dialed Hyunwoo right away, telling him to pick her up with Jooheon at 6AM sharp. He seemed very sleepy but agreed and both him and Jooheon were waiting for Sera at the bottom of her building when she exited at 5:59AM.

The drive to the meeting point with the rest of the raid crew was relatively short and thanks to Jooheon’s driving skills the three managed to arrive at 6:23AM, which was 7 minutes before Sera scheduled herself, Hyunwoo and Jooheon to be there, while the rest of them were supposed to be there at 6:20AM. No one was late. No one afforded to be late after that one time the guys from outside city was late and Sera was so angry at the fact they made her wait that she had some dealing to do with them after the operation. It was needless to say that those guys never spoke another word of excuse - no worries she didn’t kill them. Just the guard dogs in Ryu Sungmoon’s mansion had a human tongue enriched dinner. It wasn’t like these raids happened often - maximum twice a year, therefore it would be fucking nice if those shitheads could fucking come on time when required since it was not more than twice a fucking year.

“Morning,” Sera greeted everyone as she got out of the car at the meeting point with a lazy tone.

“Good morning,” the voices of about 20 men came in unison.

Hyunwoo stood by her right and Jooheon by her left as she spoke in a leisurely, almost bored tone. “The storage house should be full of workers this early on a Saturday, probably just finishing the Friday’s package load and it should be taken out by the delivery in only an hour. This is to be a clean raid, gentlemen, we leave nothing behind except ashes. No one is to take anything from there, if I hear anyone has taken anything and that goes for both drugs and cash, I will personally make sure that you won’t have hands to take something with in the future, got it? In case of the workers, they stay alive unless they threaten to harm you, they should be unarmed and will be probably scared for their lives. When it comes to the guards - no one makes it out alive to tell the tale, got that one too?”

The whole crew nodded and shouted: “Yes!”

“Then, why are you still standing here?” Sera asked them irritated, with a raised brow and they hurriedly scattered into their cars and headed to the new storage house of Ming family.

Once everyone was gone, which surprisingly took about 15 seconds, she turned to Hyunwoo and Jooheon. “Guys, I smell fish in the air. Hyunwoo stick with Jooheon and keep yourselves as focused as possible. We cannot afford to lose a family member now.”

Both nodded with serious expressions.

As the crew was doing their designated jobs during the raid, which was either to consolidate all the drugs and cash in the house or take care of all the guards and possible surveillance (that was slightly unlikely, but it was a good measure to take precautions), Sera went ahead alone (like always) to find the main office of the storage house. Just like today, she always walked empty handed, with 3 hunter knives mounted of various point on her body and a gun in the thigh holster. She had a good ear and eye for the surroundings and years of experience from various operations, not just raids.

Finding the office was never difficult and this was no different. As per usual it was on a higher ground, overlooking the working stations. The door was closed, but after careful listening and short consideration, she pushed the door open with her shoulder, the gun in hand at this point.

The office was empty and Sera headed to the table right away, calmly searching through the papers for anything valuable. There were some schedules of deliveries, the house’s revenue reports and some odd doodles, but no paper was valuable. So she made her way out and noticed the crew had already started the fire and the smell of various drugs burning began to fill the storage space along with thick grey smoke.

Sera leisurely strolled to the exit, where everyone had gathered outside, but kept standing in the door, her back to the empty storage house that started to catch on fire. She counted the numbers with my eyes and there was no one missing. _Good, but shame at the same time. Ryu Sungmoon had way too many people at his beck and call,_ Sera thought to herself _._ Hyunwoo and Jooheon were already by his car, both had a cigarette in hand.

“Go home,” again the same bored tone as if they did this all the time with the same results - like lighting up a cigarette.

The crew scattered to their respective cars again and Sera made one step out to the open space when a complete darkness enveloped her vision and a blunt force hit the back of her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story will spin faster from this point and more and more parts of the chapters will be written in different POVs, so please look forward to that ^^ Please leave a comment with your thoughts and/or a kudo if you like the story (￣y▽￣)╭ <3 <3
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading ^^


	4. The Search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: minor, minor violence
> 
> hope you like it ^^

|Kihyun POV|

“What _THE FUCK_ do you mean ‘Sera was taken’?!” Kihyun shouted at his phone when he picked up Hyunwoo’s early morning call. His banging headache, annoyed tone of voice and a terrible hangover all of a sudden completely gone, leaving him dead sober. “What the fuck happened, Hyunwoo?”

As Hyunwoo started talking in a hasty manner, Kihyun shot out of bed and threw on the first pair of sweats that he had lying around. “ _When the raid was finished, suddenly someone appeared from the inside of the storage house, put a bag over her head and hit her on back of her head with a baseball bat._ ”

Kihyun’s brows furrowed. “What raid?”

“ _The one Ryu Sungmoon told her to organize last night. I thought you knew about it_ ,” Hyunwoo’s voice gained confusion. Kihyun’s hand wiped over his face in frustration, but he couldn’t blame his brother. He should have known about it, he should have been informed about everything that the son of a bitch did, and most surely, Sera should have mentioned something too. Kihyun bolted out of the front door of his flat and ran to the elevator as Hyunwoo kept on talking about the setting up of the raid quickly yesterday, just before the fight.

Kihyun had thought that Ryu Sungmoon was stupid, but this stupid… Attacking the Ming family with no real reason was like asking the Ming family to come for them. This was a whole new level of _extreme_ stupidity.

“Get to Min’s bar as soon as possible, hyung, but pick up Changkyun and Hoseok on your way there,” Kihyun said in a hasty voice over the phone to Hyunwoo.

“ _We’re on our way to the campus already. Jooheon and I already called both of them, they’re waiting for us. We should be there in no less than 15_ ,” Hyunwoo told him and Kihyun yet again thanked the God that he had an older brother like this, who thought the same way and in this case was a step ahead. Kihyun would kill for his family.

“I’m calling Min and Hyungwon. See you there,” Kihyun muttered hanging up, his fingers busy on the screen of his phone.

When Kihyun arrived at Minhyuk’s bar, Minhyuk and Hyungwon were already there.

Hyungwon, who picked up very sleepy but all of a sudden became incredibly awake with a distressed tone to his voice, was now sitting on the backrest of the couch closest to the entrance. His head was in his hands and he didn’t move an inch when Kihyun entered, but Kihyun was sure Hyungwon had known it was him, who entered.

Minhyuk, on the other hand, was pacing nervously on Hyungwon’s right, roughly inhaling half of a cigarette in one hit and apparently it wasn’t his first one judging by the pile of butts in the ashtray next to Hyungwon. He looked up the moment Kihyun had opened the door and stopped dead in his tracks.

Not even 15 seconds after Kihyun had entered there is a tire-screeching sound came from the outside and shortly after that sound the rest of the family ran into the bar.

“What in the _fucking hell_ happened?” Kihyun flipped the very moment Hyunwoo entered the bar. Changkyun, Hoseok and Jooheon, who walked in a second before him looked terrified since it was their first time seeing Kihyun displaying such a boiling emotion.

“Exactly what I told you over the phone,” Hyunwoo said sounding rather calm, but everyone knew better. He was raging on the inside, however as the eldest brother of the family he somehow felt responsible to at least try look as composed as possible.

“Kihyun, what are we going to do?” Hoseok asked, worry is his voice was so thick one could cut it with a knife.

“Well, since this is also Ryu family matter, I have about a 100 men at my disposal right now, as I have already alarmed all the stations with this. Everyone in Ryu family thinks very highly of Sera thanks to her reputation and her close position to me and Ryu Sungmoon, so of course all of them grabbed at the opportunity to be the ones, who find her. As if they get a fucking reward for it,” Kihyun scoffed, annoyed at the stupidity and short-sightedness of the Ryu minions. “ _So_ , let me make a quick phone call and then we’ll set out to do what we can as well. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure not a single hair on Sera’s head will be crooked.”

At this statement Hyungwon made the first sound since everyone had arrived and it was a god damn sneer. “Oh, please, you couldn’t even keep track of what the fuck that piece of shit is doing.”

“Wonnie,” Minhyuk pleaded with a broken voice. “It’s not Kihyun’s fault. Ryu Sungmoon is juuuuuust a bit sick in his head. Don’t get snarky with us only because you’re worried sick about Sera.”

Kihyun sighed softly and walked over to very tense Hyungwon. “I’m sorry, Won. I should’ve kept myself informed.”

Hyungwon’s shoulders slumped down from its tense state and he hung his head again. “I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I’m-I’m just…”

“We know, we all are,” Hoseok sat to Hyungwon’s side and took him by the shoulders, gave him a tight, comforting squeeze.

A tear fell down his cheek onto the top of his hand and Kihyun put a hand on the younger’s shoulder and spoke in the strongest of voices. “You’ll get her back unharmed.”

“He will pay for _all_ he’s done to her,” Hyungwon lifted his head, the tone of his own voice mirroring Kihyun’s.

“There’s no way we’ll let it go,” Hyunwoo promised the same thing all of them have, yet again.

Kihyun smirked and pulled the phone out of his pocket. He waited for a moment for the call to connect. “Get your asses going and fucking find her.” A ‘yes sir!’ comes loudly from the other side of the phone call and Kihyun hung up right after. Then he turned to Hyunwoo. “Hyunwoo, where do you think she could be?”

“I don’t know,” the oldest shook his head but seemed to be giving it some thought. “I would look underground, maybe? The Ming family is known for being a little groundhog-y.”

“That doesn’t make me any less oriented or worried.” Kihyun pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply.

“They are known for brutal treatment of those they get their hands on,” Jooheon said.

“Yeah,” Hyunwoo shook his head again and went quiet.

They remained silent for two long moments, when Min (out of all people) sobbed loudly. Nobody noticed that he had been crying, his eyes were puffy and red, cheeks stained with fallen tears.

“Min, she’s going to be fine,” Kihyun tried to calm him.

“And what if she’s not? It’s the Ming family, Ki. They are used to sending people in boxes by couriers,” Minhyuk reminded him out loud. Kihyun really didn’t expect to see this side of Minhyuk. A situation like this had never occurred before, so even Kihyun himself was quite desperate about figuring out what to do rather quickly.

“Where was the raid?” Changkyun spoke for the first time. Another thing Kihyun didn’t notice was that the youngest had taken a seat on the ground against the wall and his fingers were currently quickly flying over the keyboard. His attitude was calm, composed and rational, but Kihyun took his guess that the youngest was as distressed as the rest of them. He both heard Sera talk fondly of the times when she had hung out with Changkyun and saw the two of them joke around a lot during the family dinners; so he knew that the two had a good relationship.

“Why?” Jooheon asked curiously.

“I can take a look if maybe I can find the car through the city’s CCTV,” he explained.

“There wouldn’t be any cameras in the area, Kyun,” Jooheon contradicted. “It was a drug distribution and storage house. There would be no surveillance in a pretty big radius. It’s a blind spot, we all have them. The Ryu storages are in areas just like that, too.”

“But she couldn’t have disappeared, right? They moved her from the storage house, therefore she must be somewhere,” Hoseok stood up from his spot next to Hyungwon and also grabbed his laptop, taking a spot next to Kyun on the floor. “Maybe something was caught on cameras outside the blind radius.”

“But, hyung, that’s a lot of cameras,” Changkyun told him but his words were laced with hope.

“Maybe we can narrow down the car?” Hoseok shrugged at the idea and squinted his eyes in thought. “I don’t know… it might be worth the effort.”

“Work your magic, if you can,” Kihyun asked of the hackers. “Min, let’s try what we know. Hyunwoo, you and Joo go out and look for something, anything, that cold point us in the right direction. And Won… I guess… be ready for whatever comes. When we find her, we’ll bring her straight to your office.”

They all head out of the bar, with the exception of Hoseok and Changkyun sitting side by side against the wall on the ground, their laptops propped on their legs, trying to find a needle in a stack of hay.

As Minhyuk and Kihyun exited the bar in the light of a Saturday morning, Kihyun grabbed Minhyuk by his elbow to stop him. “Min, go find out what you can. I’m going to Ryu Sungmoon.”

“Ki, we don’t have time for that,” Minhyuk protested.

“No,” he said. And the manner he said it in would completely intimidate Minhyuk had he been on the receiving side of Kihyun’s quiet rage. “That piece of shit needs to fucking realize that all of his decisions have to be run by me.”

“Okay, Ki. Do what you need to do,” Minhyuk nodded and headed to his own car to ask what his resources know.

|Sera POV|

There was a dull throbbing at the back of Sera’s head and she felt a little nauseous. When she tried to open her eyes they were dry and stung as if there was dust in them, her vision was hazy and she could barely make out shapes in the dully lit room. Apart from the pain on the top of her body, there was something cutting into her wrists rather harshly and her shoulders were twisted towards the back. Sera made sense of the fact she was sitting up on an uncomfortable chair in damp room that smelled like mould. The smell was vaguely familiar, but Sera’s mind was still clouded, but her brain prioritized to also focus on the fact that there was a knife poking out of her thigh couple inches above the knee. She focused her eyes on the knife and tried to see whether she felt pain, but frankly, there was only a little amount coming from the knife. The worst was from the head, but Sera’s pain threshold was very high, so…

She was very confused about what was going on.

Then memories came back to her quickly - the raid of Ming’s storage house… blunt force hitting the back of her head after something turned her vision black…

Sera sighed deeply. Now she remembered why the smell of the room felt so familiar. Ryu Sungmoon used to do this to her a lot when she was in her early teens. She would be taken from her room during sleep, picked up by a black van on the way to/from school or directly from training grounds and many other instances. He had said it was a necessary training, but it was more like he revelled in making her feel physical pain to the point that 3 years after his ‘dogs’ had taken Sera for the first time, her pain threshold was raised so high that she was able to run with only a slight limp when a short knife was stabbed in her upper thigh, it wasn’t healthy or anything, but at least it was painless.. And thankfully after that, which was also the night when Sera got so pissed at how roughly his ‘dogs’ were treating her that not only she killed the 5 that had taken her but also the ones she saw on the way out. That night was also the night when Hyungwon stitched her up for the first time - they were 15 and he had just joined the family about 3 months prior to that event.

Squirming against the chair Sera groaned in annoyance and rolled her head back from its front hanging position, her neck felt stiff and she quickly found out that moving much like that was not the best decision she’s ever made.

Rustling sounded somewhere from the right, but Sera couldn’t be bothered to move again and open her eyes.

“You came to the wrong turf, Ms. Ryu,” an older male sounding voice said from the left and Sera tried to recall whether she has heard it somewhere before but no one popped up in her mind. The man’s tone had a certain _je ne sais quoi_ that Sera quickly placed as ‘he thinks very highly of himself’ kind of attitude.

And since she was a guest of someone, who thought of himself as being at least a demi-god, she slowly turned to her left and as Sera opened my eyes to look at the man, and made sure her face displayed a perfect and easily legible expression of _complete_ annoyance.

As her eyes have found the man, Sera instantly recognized him as Ming Zhan, the boss of the Ming family. He was sitting on a much more comfortable chair than she occupied and Sera suddenly felt even more irritated.

_Like why the hell can’t I get comfy chair? Am I not an important guest, bitch?_

Ming Zhan was known to be a cruel man, but so was Sera (but well, a _woman_ ) and she had the brutal training by Ryu Sungmoon, which remained unknown to people outside her family, because Ki and Hyunwoo made fucking sure that no one lived long enough to tell the tale of those dark days that caused her not only shallow sleep and hyper awareness (which, Sera had to admit, failed her at the raid) but also the loss of her human soul and lack of healthy thinking when it came to self-value.

“Yeah? Just like you trespassed 3 weeks ago?” she croaked out, mockery remaining in her attitude.

Ming Zhan clicked his tongue and smirked arrogantly. “Oh, you see, that was different.”

“Oh, really? How so? That you didn’t manage to burn our storage to the ground?” she continued in the same manner. She pulled on her wrists again and she felt like something was cutting into them. _Did they use zip ties?_ Only now, Sera has noticed features of the room as her vision had started to clear out. She was somewhere without windows and it was a damp, moldy room that clearly looked like it hosted guests like her before. _But really… zip ties?_

“For one, yes,” Ming Zhan stood up from his chair and made a step closer to Sera. “But for two, it was the Ming showing the Ryu we are a force you don’t want to stand against when we take over your lands.”

“Oh God. I guess, we’re really dense then. Sorry about that,” she smirked at him and shrugged.

And Sera could honestly say she got him exactly where she’d wanted him - annoyed. Now she had the upper hand in this conversation, if her being tied on a chair with a knife in the thigh was excluded from the equation. “Mock me, Miss Ryu. Please go ahead because I’m going to love sending each finger and each toe in a box to your beloved uncle after it’s cut off with an expensive cigar clipper.” He walked another step closer, trying to look like a tiger stalking its prey, but it looked a little pathetic, like a kitten that was after a woolen mouse, if Sera was to be completely honest. _‘Beloved uncle’? Really?_

Sera looked up at his face as he now was only two steps away from her and showed him the most amused grin she could make. She was sure her teeth were stained with blood as she felt the metallic taste in her mouth. “Mr. Ming… I would send you to hell… but I’d hate to meet you there.”

|Kihyun POV|

When Kihyun arrived at Ryu Sungmoon’s mansion, he was furious beyond but he needed to put on his composed façade as walked in briskly. The guards haven’t expected him of course, so from the shock of seeing the grey eminence just simply walk in, they even forgot to stop him, or try to stop him from going in. It wasn’t like they could ever really stop him.

The maid that came to welcome Kihyun looked fairly confused about what was going on and at first she didn’t want to let Kihyun into the back garden, saying Ryu Sungmoon was just having his breakfast. Kihyun ignored the woman and made his way straight to the back garden.

“Sir, why didn’t you tell me about the raid?” Kihyun started speaking before he even fully approached the table.

“And why do I have to tell you everything, hm?” Ryu Sungmoon didn’t even look up from his fucking breakfast. Kihyun wanted to stay as composed as possible but his fury bubbled up.

 _So that I don’t have shit like this to deal with, you fucking idiot._ “Sir, with all due respect, I would have talked you out of it,” Kihyun calmed down a little bit because he really knew that composure was his best friend right now. He needed to get control over Ryu Sungmoon again.

“Because you think it wasn’t a good idea?” the man scoffed and finally raised his eyes from his breakfast.

 _Precisely._ “They have your niece, sir,” Kihyun said, even though he knew there was no point in trying to play ‘relationships’ and emotional strings with Ryu Sungmoon. He was a heartless mother fucker.

And this heartless mother fucker had the fucking audacity to actually shrug and begin eating again as if Kihyun had just said that the weather was nice today. “Oh, I’m sure she will make it.”

 _You fucking piece of shit! She will make it in boxes. Only God knows how much I want to kill him right now._ Despite of what was going on in his mind Kihyun kept his cool, but it drained a lot of will power from him. “I’m not talking about Sera’s physical state, sir.”

“Then what is the point you’re trying to make here, Kihyun?” he shot the young man an annoyed and bored glare.

 _I swear to God when I get my hands on you…_ “Sir, your niece is a vital part of the family. She is also one of the only people, who knows every single thing within the Ryu family business. She knows where all the vaults and underground storages are, both for distribution and drugs. She knows the schedules of the already confirmed and set packages and,” now Kihyun captured Ryu Sungmoon’s attention - only when he mentioned money or business or his personal safety, which was about to come, “she also knows the security of your house like the back of her own hand, after all, she designed it.”

At this statement of Kihyun’s the older man’s eyes widened and his face began to show signs of distress, worry and nervousness. “Oh, please… Sera would never say anything,” he said unsure. It felt more like an assurance of oneself rather than trying to convince the grey eminence.

“I’m not saying she would do it willingly, sir. But the Ming family is not only known for their brutal practices but also for using drugs on those they’re interrogating. She could literally say anything in a drugged delusional state,” Kihyun pushed further, knowing well he finally managed to squeeze the idiot just right. But inside he knew Sera’s resistance to drugs was not on ordinary levels thanks to the shit the bastard in front of him had put her through.

“I didn’t think of it this way,” Ryu Sungmoon set the cutlery on the table and swallowed dryly. And Kihyun had him exactly where he wanted him again.

 _Of course you fucking didn’t, you dumb fuck._ “That’s why you have me, sir,” Kihyun reminded him, but he was sickened by the sight of the Ryu family ‘head’. He only cared for one thing and one thing only and that was his own ass. But the worst thing about this was that Sera told Kihyun multiple times over the many long years that she got ‘the lecture’ again, which was basically Ryu Sungmoon repeating to Sera over and over how happy and grateful she should be that he took her in and cared for her as if she had been his own; and how important their family bond is and so on and so on.

“Yes, yes, that’s-that’s why I have you,” Ryun Sungmoon muttered and fiddled with his hands, nervous from the realization that just blinked through his head. Kihyun was about to leave him alone to wallow in his stupid decisions and wonder what was going to happen, when he was stopped. “Before you go, Kihyun. Put my house into high guard.”

 _Of course you’re fucking worried about yourself._ “Will do, sir,” Kihyun replied with a tight smile, however on the inside he really just wanted to kill Ryu Sungmoon on the spot.

|Changkyun POV|

Changkyun and Hoseok were both very surprised when Hyungwon came back not more than 30 minutes after he left the bar. He had a silver metal suitcase in his hand and headed over to where the boys were still occupying the same spot on the floor as they did when they all left.

“Didn’t you go to your office?” Changkyun asked him in a sympathetic voice. He knew Hyungwon was worried about Sera, maybe in a different way that Kihyun or Minhyuk were, but he didn’t know the full story of the two.

“I couldn’t stay alone, I would go crazy. Plus maybe I can help you look somehow?” Hyungwon sat next to Changkyun on the floor, his eyes looked sad and there was a lot of hurt and worry in them.

“I’ve noticed before, but I never wanted to ask about it because it’s none of my business even though we are family,” Hoseok said, never tearing his eyes from the screen of his laptop, focusing both on the conversation and the search for Sera. “But I guess, I never even had the opportunity to ask, since we haven’t met all that often with you, since all parties were busy except family dinners and there wasn’t much time to ask about stuff like that…”

“Do you always go around the stuff you want to ask like that or yes?” Hyungwon asked with a smirk on his face, somewhat amused by Hoseok’s sheepish way of getting to the point.

“He does this when he’s shy to ask about something,” Changkyun replied to Hyungwon with his own grin.

“Why are we even friends?” Hoseok turned to Changkyun with a ‘seriously?’ glare.

“Just ask away, I don’t think Hyungwon hyung would tear your head off if he doesn’t want to respond to your query,” Changkyun nudged Hoseok with his shoulder and both got back to the searching.

“Well, is there something going on with you and Sera? Like between the two of you?” Hoseok finally formulated his question, while focusing on what was happening on his laptop.

“Hmm… how do I say this?” Hyungwon looked into the distance, his eyes turned dreamy and his lips curved into a small smile. He thought in silence for a moment. “She’s sunshine mixed with a little bit of hurricane. She walks like she owns the hell, she’s 5’2” but has the attitude of 6’1” and, honestly… she’s a little sweet, a little savage and _very_ much mine.”

“But you guys aren’t and weren’t together, right?” Changkyun turned to Hyungwon, now understanding exactly why Hyungwon had reacted the way he did when all of them were present, that was why he didn’t want to be alone. Changkyun imagined for a second himself in Hyungwon’s position. He would have been worried sick for Kihyun.

 _Wait what? Say what again, brain? Why would I be worried for Kihyun? What the fuck?_ Changkyun internally slapped himself.

“Not yet. But everyone here knows they better stay away,” Hyungwon assured him with a wink.

“And just out of pure curiosity, because you know ‘curiosity killed the cat’ and I just want to know to help me sleep at night,” Hoseok began elaborating again before asking his question which made Hyungwon chuckle and it occurred to Changkyun’s mind that that was maybe what Hoseok wanted in the first place, to make Hyungwon’s mind a little more relaxed while they worked their way through the search. “If there was someone, who… well, let’s say, didn’t know that she’s yours… what would happen to that person?”

Hyungwon sighed and his lips curved into an eerie grin that was already a sign enough, but Changkyun was shocked by the words that followed. “I’m _pretty_ skilled in chemistry.”

Changkyun choked on his spit when breathing in. “Wait… hyung… are you talking about… _poison_?”

Hyungwon looked away again and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and yet mysteriously. “Maybe.”

“ _Wow,_ ” and that was the only thing Changkyun could say. He was left speechless by this opened admittance of facts by Hyungwon, whom he had considered a little different maybe - he was a doctor after all. He should be the one saving lives, not taking them away.

“There must be a reason, though,” Hoseok said shyly, trying to find reason in Hyungwon’s statement.

“I would do anything for anyone in the family. Anything. But for Sera, I would do everything. With no arguing. I love her unconditionally and, I’m sorry, but she is on the first place for me. Maybe you knew this in your subconscious, but… here I am telling you loud and clear. Sorry, no offence, but… if it was you or her… I would pick her,” Hyungwon stared at them intently when giving them the respond they had thought they would hear in the first place. It was obvious how Hyungwon felt and what was important to him.

“None taken,” Hoseok smiled softly at Hyungwon. “I get it, I really do.”

“And outside the family, I know you two might not get it… _yet_ , but… I don’t care for human life,” Hyungwon stated giving the two serious, albeit a little inhumane truths. “Not after what I’ve seen. Not after what I’ve experienced. If there are instances where I have to be the grim reaper, I will.”

The room fell silent, both Changkyun and Hoseok were slowly processing what Hyungwon told them. They both knew (and they talked about it in private) that something marked every single member of the family, something they have experienced stained their souls and changed their minds, leaving their opinions of the world different, a little distorted even. The two hackers have had many discussions on this topic, especially after they heard a snippet of a story or someone mention something around them, as they were trying to piece the puzzle together without asking and opening old wounds of their new brothers and sister. In the end, both of them were somewhat out-casted by their own society, so they were just happy they had someone to call family now.

The two continued to work in silence as Hyungwon quietly breathed next to them, letting them search online for Sera as best as they could.

|Kihyun POV|

It’s been 10 hours since Sera’s disappearance and they all, but Minhyuk, were back in the bar. Kihyun had thought he would arrive first and call everyone from there, but he found a very worried Hyungwon, which was manifested by him just sitting on one of the couches, holding an already cold cup of coffee and staring into the distance in front of him with a black expression.

It was Saturday evening and the lifeless bar (it was needless to say Minhyuk closed down ‘due to technical reasons’ until they find Sera again) was quiet, the sound that occurred the most was the clicking of a keyboard and ringing of a phone.

So in the company of two working hackers and one doctor in shut down mode, Kihyun made the call to the rest of the family, informing them to finish up what they’re doing unless they’re following a clue and come to the bar.

Minhyuk said it would take him at least an hour because he was still checking some of his best information resources and following the person’s lead, stuff had to be done slow if Minhyuk wanted to know something. Kihyun thought of the informant and a shudder went through his body, goose bumps covering his whole body. He remembered the couple from whom Minhyuk got only the best, most hidden and most valuable information. He also remembered that Minhyuk hated them to the gut. He would rather chase a cat all around town putting small pieces together rather than ask them if they know something. And this process got Minhyuk’s brain to work at 120% all the time, his memory one of an elephant - he got his new sources and more experience into hearing and know what’s up by simple sign of how people around him act. It took Minhyuk some time, of course, stuff like this doesn’t happen overnight, but now that he went to the couple even less often than before they made sure to hold him there for longer than was actually necessary. Kihyun didn’t know what they did to Minhyuk when he came, but he knew it must have been something Minhyuk despised.

Hyunwoo and Jooheon at first went around all the storage houses to check if the whole Ryu clan knew what was going on. Thankfully, the minions were kept in the dark, just like Kihyun instructed, so the search went on alongside the business. Kihyun needed them to not stop working because that would raises suspicion. If the other families found out Sera is out of equation, even if just for a couple of hours, anything could happen and ruin the plan they had in general. And that was something the family couldn’t let happen. So Jooheon drove around the town ensuring the storages are working while Hyunwoo non-intrusively asked questions to those, who might know something.

“Hyung, can I talk to you about something?” Changkyun’s voice tore Kihyun out of his concentration and for a moment he realized he must’ve looked like Hyungwon, but with slightly squinted eyes and teeth biting his lower lip. “Umm, privately?”

He stood up from his spot on the couch. There weren’t that many _private_ talks in the family since they all knew each brains in and out. Changkyun and Hoseok haven’t gotten entirely used to it just yet, so of course Kihyun understood why Changkyun wanted to keep some secrets. After all, they could be pretty ruthless to each other when it came to exposing each other, but that was always meant as a joke.

They walked over behind the bar and Kihyun gave Changkyun a soft motion with his hand to go ahead.

“I’m scared, hyung,” Changkyun said quietly as if it was difficult for him to voice such words. He looked everywhere but at Kihyun. “Because… well, this might seem weird, but in the short six months this family really grew on me. On both Hoseok and me. We talked about it many times, we’re just really happy that you took us in as if you’d known us since the beginning. So, I’m scared.”

Kihyun felt his face soften from the concentrated and worried face into one he hadn’t worn in ages - loving, caring, relaxed. “It’s not weird to be scared, Changkyun. It’s not weird to care, either. I’m really happy to hear that the two of you found your family with us, because honestly that’s exactly what I have been hoping for. But we’re going to get Sera back unhurt, don’t worry about that. Plus, Sera _is_ very skilled in many ways that you _maybe_ don’t know or even perhaps don’t want to know. I’d be way more worried if it was you that got taken,” Kihyun admitted with a sigh and looked Changkyun in the eye.

“Why?” Changkyun asked curiously.

 _Because you grew on me, Kyunnie. I can’t imagine how much I would freak out had it been you._ “Because both you and Hoseok grew up differently than we did. While you grew up caring about school, relationship with your peers among other perfectly normal things, we grew up dealing with inhumane people, who disregarded human life, we grew up learning how to most effectively kill another person and just how much pressure you can apply to the neck when you’re choking someone to get him to the brink of fainting but never actually knocking him out, among others. We know how to deal with this, all of us… but you don’t. And I don’t ever want to see you in pain like the one Sera might be going through now,” Kihyun reached out and put his hand on top of Changkyun’s stiff shoulder, where it rested for a moment, then slowly moved to the side of his neck and Kihyun brushed his thumb over the back of Changkyun’s jaw.

Kihyun must have imagined it, but he felt like Changkyun leaned into the touch a little bit. But he had to shake the thought out of his mind right now because they had other things to focus on.

Changkyun’s eyes stared deeply into Kihyun’s, who felt like the younger was able to see his soul and how corrupted it was. But even if they did, Changkyun seemed he wasn’t disgusted by what might have been damaged or broken in Kihyun; he seemed like he cared for him.

“I’ll go back to help, Hoseok hyung again. I didn’t think the haystack would be this big. It’s nearly impossible to find a clue our way,” Changkyun pulled away and sighed. Changkyun went back to his spot and Kihyun sat himself next to Hyungwon, pulling out his phone dialing Jooheon’s number.

|Sera POV|

When Ming Zhan left the cell with an annoyed face, about which Sera could only say - ‘mission accomplished’; a bald guy and another guy came somewhere from behind her and had beaten her without saying anything at first. Sera half-expected them to ask questions first. But they didn’t, they just kept pulling her hair, kicking her in the stomach and shins. Sera was tied to a chair so she was rather uncomfortable, but it wasn’t all that painful if she was to be honest. Her pain threshold was much higher than just some kicks and pulls, really.

It must have been about 10 minutes when they finally got bored with just hitting her and decided to make this fun for Sera too. “So, I’ll call you ‘princess’… do you mind?” the bald guy asked.

Sera thought he expected her to say that she would indeed mind, but she was not that type of a girl. “If you had hopes that you’d be the first one to call me that I’m sorry to crush them.”

“That won’t be the only thing you’ll be sorry for, sweetheart,” said the other guy with a sly smile. Sera wanted to scoff but she kinda wanted to play with them. It was a better past time than being angry, since they only got more and more annoyed with time. Sera has always annoyed people to places beyond their patience levels. Especially people like them. And she hella enjoyed it.

The bald guy bent over and untied her ankles from the legs of the chair and she was picked up by two pairs of hands by the biceps and they started to drag her to the back of the room. She had no idea what was there until they turned her body around and she noticed a tub full of water.

“Gentlemen, you’re so kind, I felt like my hair needed a wash,” Sera said sarcastically when they pushed her to her knees in front of the tub. “You always mind the girl’s needs.” And her head was pushed underwater. Sera didn’t struggle even though they most likely expected her to. After all, most people in the world would.

Water torture wasn’t one of her favorites, since it has caused quite the trauma for Sera when as a 10 years old child she was subjected to waterboarding for the first time. Truth be told, for years Sera was scared to even tilt her head back when she was washing her hair, the water that hit her face from the shower stream reminded her too much of things she went through each week on Fridays for 3 years. Excessive water boarding could not only cause lung damages but also brain damage from oxygen deprivation, not even going to pull out the psychological damage that she had to heal over years, and even until today Sera still occasionally got a nightmare, reliving the terrible memories from her childhood. There were opportunities for her to use waterboarding on others during interrogations, but she never got down to it, because her mind would conjure images of her own body lying tied on the table with a towel over her face and the person standing over her pouring buckets of water right onto her face making her feel worse than drowning.

But, just being pushed underwater was something she dealt with better, it was easier to relax and since she had good lung capacity and wasted no oxygen on struggling, it was a rather chill activity, until someone brought it too far.

Sera was pulled out and her head was thrown back. “Let’s make a deal, princess. You tell us about your storage houses, delivery times and vaults and we might just kill you quickly and silently,” the other guy offered with a sleazy voice.

“Ooohh, boys. I’ll be a major disappointment to you, then.” Her head went back in, this time for longer.

“How about now?” he asked again after bringing Sera out of the water.

Sera took a deep breath and sighed theatrically. “Fine.”

“Really?” the bald guy questioned me in disbelief.

“No,” she scoffed and laughed shortly.

In.

Out.

“We can do this all day, princess,” he reminded her.

“Trust me, it won’t be fun after the next 15 minutes,” Sera responded. She was talking out of personal experience after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More characters are having their backgrounds revealed and more Kihyun's mind comes to the surface. ^^ Please leave a comment with your thoughts and/or a kudo if you like the story (￣y▽￣)╭ <3 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading :)


	5. The Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What a day...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: kinda graphic blood and gore stuff, not sure what makes you squirm, so please proceed with caution is you;re not a fan of all that stuff...
> 
> hope you enjoy ^^

|Sera POV|

The bald guy twisted the short knife that had been stabbed just a couple inches above Sera’s knee again and she saw the way the muscles and meat of her leg protested against this and more blood poured out. “And what about now, princess? Do you remember when the next package arrives?”

Sera couldn’t say he liked her laugh, but maybe some people found her laughing annoying, probably especially in a situation like this. But then again, she was amused, so she laughed. “What can I say, I’m not called ‘scatter brain Jane’ for nothing.”

He kicked her in the gut harshly causing the chair to fall over backwards and she roughly hit the back of her head against the dirty concrete ground. Sera grunted from the impact and rolled her head to the side, closing her eyes tightly for a second or two before the two nice gentlemen decided it was about time to pick the chair up and put her up again.

“You know, I hate being a smart ass-,“ she said but get cut off.

“If it’s not about the package then I don’t want to hear it,” the other guy told her and slapped her hard with the back of his hand. Sera has always considered slaps a very impolite way to get your point across, on top of which they were also overly dramatic and in a nice, well-manner company and society they felt rather misplaced. So, of course, she had to voice her displeased opinion.

“Well, now I have things to say… Firstly, hitting me on the head is definitely not going to help my memory - it can actually help me to a concussion but I have never heard of anyone, who actually remembered something by someone hitting their head,” she stated in the best lecturer voice she could get around to after being choked previously by one of these big fellas, but her throat and therefore her vocal chords as well felt like sand paper.

“I said, if you don’t have anything to say about the packages or storage houses that I don’t want to hear shit,” he barked out at her in reminder.

“Will you _just_. Let me. Get. To. My. Point?” Sera emphasized and sighed heavily and gave him an annoyed glare. He only beckoned her way with his hand. “Thank you. As I was previously saying, hitting somebody on the head can cause a concussion, to which _memory loss_ is a rather unpleasant but fairly _common_ side effect. And I also genuinely believe slaps are a very ill-mannered way of showing someone your opinion on a certain matter and they don’t belong into well-mannered society and I have believed I was surrounded by polite people.” Sera finished on a dot and there was silence for a moment before the bald guy spoke again.

“And your point is?” he probably awaited her to continues and tell them something about something.

_Wait, they actually thought I would say something? For real?_

“That was my point,” she deadpanned and her vision crossed a little bit as the knife was pushed on again.

“Don’t play with us, little girl,” the bald guy warned her again. Up until now, he kept his cool, but he was starting to break and anger began to show on his face. It was very important to always keep composure when interrogating someone. Especially someone like Sera, well, c’mon, she would probably even get on Dalai Lama’s nerves. Even Mother Theresa would send her to hell.

So it was a given she was going to continue on hitting the spot that had the dent. “Did you just call me ‘little’? Okay, I get it… I’m short, but I am by no means _little_. My ego is much bigger than yours, mister,” Sera spat out, offended in fact. And another slap flew across her cheek, echoing in the empty, damp concrete room.

_Okay… fun’s over. Now, I’m pissed._

Sera laughed out loud in a manner Hyunwoo had previously called psychotic and this time she threw the chair back herself, falling onto her back. But this time, expecting the fall, she propped her head and body as forward as she possibly could and the cracked back of the chair broke, which set her tied hands free of the chair. The idiots didn’t tie her ankles back to the chair after bringing her over there, when the water stopped being fun for them. They most likely thought that putting a knife above her knee would stop her from moving on her feet. And, hello, that was a beginner mistake #1. She freely rolled over backwards standing on her own two feet before jumping up, which wasn’t all that easy with a knife couple of inches above her knee (but hey, Ryu Sungmoon’s training was rougher that momentary pain) and she squeezed her arms around and under her feet and brought them to her front.

When Sera planted her feet on the ground again with her zip tied hands in front of her hips, she did the easy zip tie rip where you had to fast and hard push your elbows around your hips and if you did it well (which she should since she used to do it way more than once a day during training) the zip tie should snap. Sera’s did.

This whole process took (a guess) about 5-7 seconds. The two were fazed, staring at Sera with wide eyes before they unfroze and tried to jump at her. Idiots. They could have stayed alive had they just told her to go freely. But _no_ , they had to make things difficult for themselves.

The bald guy launched first and Sera quickly grabbed the handle of the knife, pulling it out and in one swift swoosh dragged it from the bottom of his right cheek up to the left eye, creating a deep cut from which blood immediately started gushing out in big amounts, some droplets fell onto Sera’s hand. Screaming he grabbed his face and fell on the ground squirming from the pain his now non-existent left eye was in. A small pool of blood immediately formed under his head.

The other guy was just as stupid and as rushed as the bald one. He fisted Sera’s hair (bad idea) and tugged her backwards, so in return she grabbed his wrist to know where his forearm was located and stabbed the knife just above her hand and he so very kindly released her hair and stumbled with the knife sticking out of his forearm backwards a couple of steps. As much as Sera wanted to keep playing with these two, she had no idea how long she had been knocked out, which happened twice and she was fucking sure it wasn’t good for her brain either. And Sera was sure that the family was freaking out. After all, she could have fun some other time.

She kicked out onto his chest hard, knocking him to the ground and thankfully he was in enough shock that she made those quick two steps around him and took his chin in one hand and the crown of his head to the other. And twist. And crack. So easy and another life was gone.

Sighing she pushed some of the dirty and damp hair that have fallen to her face back with a bloody hand, smearing the stranger’s blood over the hair. Sera strolled over to the bald guy, who was still grunting in pain over his lost eye and roughly pulled him into a seated position.

“Look what you could have avoided had you only treated me nicely,” Sera shook her head, her voice laced with playful blame over their actions. “Now, if you don’t want to feel the pain of losing the other and only eye you have left, tell me which one of you two has keys from the door and how deep underground we are, hm?”

He grunted in reply but unfortunately (for him) Sera didn’t understand, so she placed her left hand on the right side of his face, the gesture could be seen as gentle if the situation was different. Brushing her thumb over his eye in a quiet warning got him shaking in fear, his hand dropped to his pocket and he hastily fished out a set of keys.

“Oh, thank you,” Sera said politely and smiled eerily and just like with the other one, she twisted his neck. One less life on the surface of Earth, again.

Sera stood up and glanced at the two lifeless bodies she was leaving behind in this damp concrete cell. “You boys,” she sighed again. “You really could have avoided all of this had you only studied better.” She made a tsk-tsk-tsk sound and made her way to the door.

|Kihyun POV|

Minhyuk arrived with a very strong cigarette smell around him. In fact the smell was so strong that it hit Kihyun’s nose the moment the door opened and before he could look up to check, who came into the bar. Minhyuk smoked a lot on a normal day, but if he was stressed or working on something he needed to concentrate on, he smoked even more than normally.

“I completely fucking wasted my time with those two!” Minhyuk yelled out in anger and swiped one of the crystal ashtrays off the table next to Jooheon in utter frustration. The glass shattered into million pieces over the black marble floor. Kihyun had seen Minhyuk angry before but he’d never seen him this furious. Changkyun and Hoseok looked shocked and their mouths gaped open to prove it. Hyungwon finally tore his gaze from all the medical supplies he checked and re-checked over and over or the last 2 hours, never responding to anything Kihyun tried to tell him. Jooheon, who sat closest to the entrance therefore closest to where Minhyuk had pushed the ashtray off of the table curled up, making himself smaller on the bar stool, his cigarette frozen between his fingers. Hyunwoo’s hand that was bringing the cup of coffee to his lips stopped mid-motion, his eyes watching Minhyuk carefully.

Minhyuk was breathing heavily as he fell to his knees among the shards beneath his feet and released another pained and frustrated yell. Hyungwon immediately got to his feet and squatted next to Minhyuk and put a hand over his shaking shoulders. Kihyun saw the tears falling from Minhyuk’s eyes splattering on the floor. Hyungwon murmured something to Minhyuk, who just shook his hand off his shoulder upset and looked at Hyungwon.

“Hyungwon, I can’t lose her, too,” Minhyuk’s voice was full of desperation and suddenly Kihyun understood Minhyuk’s rage. There was so much pain in those 5 words that Kihyun had to push his own tears back and swallow a lump in his throat. Hyunwoo hung his head and Jooheon took a slow shaky drag from his cigarette to hide tears of his own. Changkyun’s and Hoseok’s faces now showed more confusion than shock.

Hyungwon leaned towards Minhyuk. “Min, we won’t,” he said in the lowest, most tender voice that Kihyun had only once seen him use with Sera in a private conversation that was definitely not for his ears.

“Guys,” suddenly Changkyun called out, his eyes focused on his screen, reading something, Hoseok stared over his shoulder. “Someone posted on their social media story a picture of a short haired bloodied up woman. The face is not very visible, but it looks like Sera, doesn’t it?” He turned the laptop for everyone to see.

“Does it have a location?” Hyunwoo asked, coming closer to the two hackers, seated on one of the couches now (after hours of convincing too).

“Looking into it now,” Hoseok replied, his fingers flying over the keyboard of his computer. “But it was posted 5 minutes ago, she can be any-“

The door opened and the sound of them closing made everyone turn in that direction.

“Maaaan, what a _day_!” Sera sighed exaggeratedly and strolled inside. Her black shirt was torn in many places, her short hair looked sticky and there was dried blood on the edges of her face and droplets of blood were decorating her heck along with blue-ish handprints from obviously from choking. Kihyun’s eyes looked her body up and down searching for wounds and the fell on a darkened spot on the washed out skinny black jeans just above her knee. And there was also that very apparent whole, where the blood started to slowly clot.

The second Sera stepped into the bar and Minhyuk’s eyes landed on her, he woke up from his trance and sprinted over, stopping just a step before hitting into her. He clasped Sera’s face into his hands gently and kissed her cheeks repeatedly in a loving manner, murmuring something Kihyun could not hear even as he, along with the others, rushed towards them. Sera let Minhyuk hug her scrunching her nose, most likely because her ribs were hurting.

“Min,” Hyungwon said in a warning tone. “you’re hurting her.”

“Oh,” Minhyuk apologized quickly, but didn’t let go of her.

“I hope that the technical reason is not that you ran out of alcohol, ‘cause I really need a drink,” Sera grinned at the bar owner as he let go of her small wounded body.

Minhyuk smirked at her and walked over to the bar. “I’m guessing you’re after my Paraiso bottle that I have been saving for the worse times, right?” Minhyuk called out from behind the bar. The playfulness returned to his voice and Kihyun knew that everything was going to be okay again if Minhyuk is back to his old self.

“How did you know?” Sera asked with feign innocence and smiled.

“Because you’ve been asking me to open it for 2 years, sis,” Minhyuk’s eyes gleamed with love and happiness while his words cut with pretend scoff.

“Well, then… today’s better than any,” she called out after him as she followed Hyungwon to the couch to sit down next to the table where all the medical equipment was laid out. No one else has said anything yet. Kihyun just felt so relieved, like a massive burden fell off his shoulders.

“Okay, okay, Jooheonie come help me with the glasses please,” Minhyuk called Jooheon over, but he was smiling contently as he placed the glasses on a tray for Jooheon to take.

Sera suddenly hissed like a cat, which startled Changkyun standing next to Kihyun to jump up and bump into the older. She looked accusingly but cutely at the tall doctor, who had just cut open the jeans over her knee to get better to the wound so it could be treated and stitched.

“Don’t be like that… I needed to get t the wound and it would have hurt more if you pulled the whole dried scab down if you were to strip them down,” he replied with stone cold face, but Kihyun knew better. This was Hyungwon’s working face, inside he was probably all fireworks from happiness that he got Sera back.

While Minhyuk poured some rum into each glass with skilled accuracy, Hyungwon cleaned up the wound on the knee as best as he could and prepared his sutures. Changkyun sat himself next to Kihyun and Hoseok excitedly, but quietly chatted with Jooheon and Hyunwoo about something.

Kihyun couldn’t last any longer, though. “Sera,” he said to catch her attention with a serious pressing voice. Her head turned and eyes showed that she understood everything he was asking of her in that one word.

“Kihyun,” Hyungwon sent him a warning glare. “Let me at least finish.”

“Hyungwon as much as I would love to let it be, you know I would, but by the time you finish she will have had her second or third glass of rum and will be sleepy, which will result in me knowing nothing and I need to act now,” Kihyun explained himself. He wasn’t very happy about having to disturb the calmness and happiness from Sera being back safely but they had a plan with a clear goal. Unfortunately, it had been disturbed and amends needed to be made. There was time for rest, but the time wasn’t now.

“Nothing happened,” Sera replied in a quiet but strong voice. Of course she would say that, they all knew she wouldn’t say anything else.

“How did you get out?” Hoseok suddenly asked curiously.

“Mmmmm… are you sure you want to know?” she questioned him back. Kihyun thought of the question as perfectly valid since Hoseok was such a pacifist and hated violence of all kind, he doubted Hoseok could handle the full story.

“Yeah,” Hoseok replied with assurance.

“Are you sure you can stomach it?” Kihyun double checked. Hoseok looked at him with slightly alarmed eyes.

“Because as I know Sera, there was definitely at least one death involved,” Jooheon stated a fact with a playful seriousness.

“Two in fact,” Sera threw nonchalantly and sipped slowly from her rum. “But, hey… I was gentle.” She shrugged and swirled the brow coloured alcohol around in her crystal glass. All eyes were on her and Kihyun could see Hoseok swallow dryly from the corner of his eye.

Hyungwon couldn’t suppress his smile as he meticulously cleaned his instruments after he finished stitching Sera up without even taking his eyes of the woman next to him. “Gentle?”

“Well… they didn’t suf-“ she didn’t finish her sentence as realization hit her. “Yeeeaaahh.”

“Still wanna hear it?” Hyunwoo asked Hoseok with a smirk plastered on his face. Hoseok only nodded in agreement and Kihyun settled himself on the couch comfortably, the warmth from Changkyun’s body next to him didn’t let him completely relax, though. He kept thinking of what could have happened had it been him, who was taken, while Sera told everyone about the events of her Saturday, which were nothing short of gruesome.

It was long past midnight when Minhyuk locked the door of the bar behind them, tearing down the apologetic notice about being closed for the day. Kihyun offered to take Changkyun back to campus, which had been met with confused glances as Hyunwoo and Jooheon were going that way to drop off Hoseok, but Kihyun shot Hyunwoo a glare before he even got the chance to question his decision. Hyungwon and Sera got into his Model X Tesla and with how Kihyun knew Hyungwon, there would be either a long talk between the two or dead silence.

“Changkyun, get in the car,” Kihyun called out to the youngest just before seating himself into the driver’s seat. For a moment the younger seemed reluctant to do as told but eventually complied with the request.

Kihyun drove off but not in the direction of the campus, hoping that Changkyun wouldn’t notice too soon.

“Why aren’t we heading to the campus?” Changkyun asked confused.

 _Guess, I’m not that lucky_ , Kihyun thought to himself and sighed heavily. “I think it’s time you guys move out of campus into one of the safe houses I have in back up.”

“What? Why?” The statement had Changkyun confused even more than he had already been.

“Because I am dead worried that what happened to Sera today might happen to one of you in the near future,” Kihyun explained, his eyes fixed on the road ahead but Changkyun must have seen the gleam of worry in them.

“But, hyung, won’t it raise suspicion with Ryu Sungmoon?” Changkyun questioned cleverly.

However Kihyun had a solution for that too. “I don’t only have safe houses that son of a bitch knows about. I’ve been planning this for many years, Kyun.”

Changkyun was silent for a moment, deep in thought, but his sight never left Kihyun’s face. “Okay, but… do I have to pay rent?”

Kihyun snickered and then burst out in a short laughter. “No.”

“Okay, then. So are we heading there now?”

“Also no.”

“So where are we going?”

“My place,” Kihyun said, turning to Changkyun for a second to witness the shock in his face before returning his attention to the calm city streets.

“Why?”

“Because there is nothing besides furniture in the safe houses. No food, no clothes, nothing to live with. Plus, I suggest not ordering in when you two start to live there. I know that you don’t cook and Hoseok can cook a ramyeon but I don’t suggest eating that every single day, for more than one reason,” Kihyun replied calmly.

Changkyun nodded his head in acknowledgment. “So, do I stay with you tonight and move tomorrow with Hoseok hyung?”

“If you two can pack in one day, yeah.” _But I wouldn’t mind you staying longer than one night._

“Hyung,” Changkyun scoffed. “We’re students, we basically don’t own shit. Especially the two of us.” There was a hint of sadness in Changkyun’s voice when he voiced the last thought. If he wasn’t counting the stocks both of them were purchasing lately, some of them legally, some not so much.

The rest of the drive was silent, both lost deep in thoughts. Kihyun parked the car on his spot in the underground garage space of his apartment building. He shook Changkyun awake and led him to the elevators.

“Which floor?” Changkyun asked with sleepy eyes.

“Top,” Kihyun replied simply, pushing number 33 on the number board.

“You live on the top floor?” the younger blinked at Kihyun completely awoken.

“Yes. The penthouse.”

“You said, we shouldn’t waste money,” Changkyun accused Kihyun, who turned to him with a knowing smirk.

“It’s not a waste of money. It’s an investment in real estate. This building is built almost in the city centre, but is surrounded by greenery that was build around the building to raise the selling value. The apartments here are top grade and this building is home to many celebrities, many of whom wanted the top floor penthouse, but I offered the best price for it. The security of the building is also top notch, so as far as I think, and let me tell you, Kyun, I thought of it well; this pent house will sell for way more than for what I had bought it for,” Kihyun smiled at Changkyun, who gave his words some thought and nodded again.

|Changkyun POV|

The elevator dinged and Changkyun could nothing but stare around him the moment he stepped into the penthouse. It wasn’t the biggest one he had imagined in his head, but right behind the full length glass windows of the living room, which was big and spacious, uncluttered and very sleekly modern; was a massive terrace that must have been the biggest joy on a beautiful spring morning. Behind the terrace was a quiet view of city’s mountain park which made it feel almost secluded from the big city.

“Are you hungry?” Kihyun asked somewhere from the right, but it felt like a distance. Changkyun turned around and followed the voice and light. He came into the kitchen and again was stunned by all the high-tech appliances and black marble kitchen tops.

“Wow,” was the only thing Changkyun had the ability to say.

“’Wow’ is not an answer to my question,” Kihyun laughed at him wholeheartedly and Changkyun caught himself before he could smile shyly, but he could feel his cheeks heating up. The blush was definitely up to his ears as well. And in that very moment, he decided to just… _fuck that._

He walked over to Kihyun’s side as he was picking out three of the same ramyeon packets from a big basket of mixed number of packs in there. Truth be told, he had been dreaming about this for quite some time. And now he had the perfect chance. So if his instinct wasn’t wrong, only something good would happen tonight. If his instinct was wrong, though… _Nah, I don’t want to think about that now. If it comes to that, I’ll deal with the consequences,_ Changkyun thought to himself.

“Hyung,” Changkyun said from his position right next to Kihyun, wanting to get his attention, his voice was small and lacked some courage.

Kihyun looked in question and Changkyun acted on instinct, placing his right hand on the nape of Kihyun’s neck and pulled him closer to connect their lips. Kihyun didn’t do anything for a second and Changkyun started to regret his decision, wanting to pull away, but in that moment Kihyun’s hand on the back of his neck stopped him from doing so. Kihyun deepened the kiss and Changkyun licked Kihyun’s bottom lip, biting it lightly right after.

It must have been good five minutes before they finally separated, breathing heavily, lips swollen from sucking and biting, shining from being kissed for so long.

“I guess you don’t want to be offered the guest room, right?” Kihyun smirked at Changkyun, who mirrored his facial expression with the exact same knowing grin.

“Not really,” he pulled Kihyun in for another kiss, this time his hands pulled on the hem of the shirt, getting under it and caressing the abs Changkyun didn’t know Kihyun even had. He moved his lips to just below the ear, which was rewarded with a lustful moan from the older. His fingers traced over the top of Kihyun’s underwear and he felt his skin get speckled with goose bumps.

Then Changkyun felt a hand slide down his back and under the waistband of his loose jeans and lower. Kihyun suddenly pushed Changkyun’s hips closer to his own and Changkyun could feel the pressing hardness of Kihyun’s erection. “Let’s take this out of my kitchen,” Kihyun whispered to Changkyun’s ear and bit not all that gently into the younger’s earlobe. Changkyun groaned cravingly in agreement and followed Kihyun to his bedroom.

They barely passed the threshold when Kihyun placed his hands on Changkyun’s hips and started to pull his shirt up and over his head. Changkyun did the same and now there wasn’t ‘fast enough’ or ‘soon enough’ to get the other rid of their clothing. The passionate artful kissing and sensual touching from the kitchen turned to raw hunger and lustful thirst for the other, a mess of hand and strong touches, ragged breathing and a harmonic melody of moans.

As Kihyun took the lead, he took his sweet time to tease Changkyun at first and prepare him, which ultimately turned Changkyun into a moaning mess, his mind swam in waves of pleasure surging through his body one after another.

Changkyun could say that the sex wasn’t anything pretty, it was messy and rushed, sweaty and loud, quick and dirty but at the same time Changkyun would never change a single thing about it. He loved the way Kihyun moaned lustfully behind him, how the older raked his back while he absolutely ravaged him. He couldn’t get enough of the heat from Kihyun’s body or the ecstasy from the feeling that he made Kihyun make those sounds and those curses uttered under his breath; the high from hearing his name as Kihyun came - just for that reason alone, Changkyun didn’t mind getting addicted to Yoo Kihyun.

“Do you mind if I smoke?” Changkyun asked still blissed out as he lay on the bed naked next to Kihyun, who looked at him with a question in the eye.

After a sigh, Kihyun motioned his hand to the windows. “At least go to the balcony.”

Changkyun rolled out of bed and padded over to where his pants separated from his body. Kihyun watched his every move, but not in suspicion, just in pure interest. He took out a pack of cigarettes, but to Kihyun’s surprise, he pulled out a pre-rolled joint. “Join me?” Changkyun smirked at him and Kihyun seemed to ponder over it for a moment before tiredly nodding in agreement.

Kihyun slid out of bed and put on a black bathrobe. From the silent butler, he grabbed his pair of dark gray cotton pyjama bottoms and threw them at Changkyun, who gratefully pulled them on. Kihyun opened the sliding door of the balcony revealing a beautiful city skyline with the mountain park on the right. There were two chairs and a small table on the balcony that looked at luxurious and Changkyun could have imagined.

Changkyun clicked the lighter as he leaned on the railing and took the first the first hit of his joint. He held his breath for while and then exhaled a full lung of smoke. He repeated the process before passing it.

Kihyun’s actions were the same but also came with a small appreciative nod.

“I was thinking,” Changkyun said leaving the end of the sentence opened.

“You already had time to think?” Kihyun mocked him slightly with a smirk.

“Surprisingly, yes,” Changkyun teased Kihyun back, taking the joint from him and French inhaling the smoke. “Is it too much to ask if the moving can be done on Monday?”

Kihyun chuckled adorably and took Changkyun gently by the chin, turning his face to him. “It’s not, but let’s not make the Sunday time go to waste.”

Changkyun smirked as Kihyun pulled him in for another heated kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, I was not ready to write some more explicit action between Ki and Kyun, but it will happen (please forgive me) - but I still hope you liked it. What did you think of Sera's day?
> 
> I appreciate all the opinions you share with me, so please leave a comment with your thoughts and/or a kudo if you like the story (￣y▽￣)╭ <3 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading ^^ See you next time!


	6. The Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changkyun is curious and the curious always get their answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: mentions of rape
> 
> hope you enjoy the chapter ^^

|Changkyun POV|

Monday morning came earlier than Changkyun wanted. Kihyun and him used the Sunday time well (as the older called it) and now lying half-awake, half still in dream land, while Kihyun showered he smiled softly to himself. His mind was calm and the thoughts flowed in the right direction, unlike most of the previous Mondays when Changkyun’s thoughts swarmed around like a bee hive.

Sunday was also productive on the work side, Changkyun managed to track the bug the software (in reality more like malware) him and Hoseok have been developing and sent it to Hoseok to revise the changes. While that was happening Changkyun found out that Kihyun was a damn good cook, but he didn’t understand where he had found time to learn all that while managing a fucking drug cartel (even though he hated that word).

“Aren’t you going to take a shower?” Kihyun asked the half-awake Changkyun, who cracked one eye opened and have seen him yet again in the black bathrobe with wet hair messily tussled around.

“I took a shower last night before going to bed,” Changkyun replied lazily and stretched like a cat.

“No, you didn’t,” Kihyun opposed with a neutral voice as he shuffled around in his walk-in closet.

“I didn’t?” Changkyun questioned in disbelief.

“No, you fell asleep.”

“Okay, I’ll go take a shower,” Changkyun rolled out of bed, but like literally rolled out and just somehow stumbled into the bathroom and turned the shower on, letting the water just flow down his body, while his sleepy mind thought about the short exchange he just had with Kihyun. It was so domestic, way too domestic. It felt weird… almost as if Kihyun did this often. And there was only one person that would have the knowledge of anything and everything going on in this family.

Turning the shower off after he was done cleaning himself was the most difficult thing to do, ever. Unhooking the towel from the hanger, Changkyun wrapped it around his hips and walked back out to the room.

“Can you drop me off at Minhyuk’s bar instead of the uni, please?” Changkyun asked the almost dressed Kihyun and he had to bite his tongue from coming out and licking his lips. Kihyun looked as fucking hot as ever, dressed in dark navy blue slacks and unbuttoned crisply ironed white shirt, the abs that shocked Changkyun Saturday night slightly poked out through the opening on the chest. _Damn, had I not just showered…_ Changkyun’s thoughts swam around his mind offering him images of what he would do to Kihyun and what he would let Kihyun do to him.

“Why?” Kihyun raised an eyebrow at him.

“I need to talk to him about something,” Changkyun decided it would be better to remain a little cryptic about this. After all, he didn’t think it was all that smart or healthy to be lusting over someone, whom he also considered his older brother. Maybe he was also becoming a little crazy among all of these crazy people, but that would only make him normal in their merit, so whatever.

“Is it work related?” Kihyun pressed on.

“Umm, personal actually,” Changkyun answered not completely sure with his words but decided to go for it.

“Okay, then. But call Minhyuk to see if he’s there this early,” Kihyun turned his attention to closing the cuff buttons of his shirt.

“Wait, what time is it?” Changkyun furrowed his brows in confusion.

“7:32,” Kihyun replied after taking a look at the watch laid next to him on a small table.

“Seven what-? Why the hell-“

“’Cause I need to go to work and you need to pack. The two of you have to move today. I already talked to Hyunwoo. He said he will help you move all of your stuff into the safe house. Hoseok apparently moved yesterday,” Kihyun said as he walked out of the room. The last words becoming more of an echo.

“Well, fuck me,” Changkyun sighed and fell back on the neatly made bed.

“And don’t you dare get back in bed!” Kihyun shouted from outside the room, which startled Changkyun and he quickly set the bedding into the position it was in previously.

“Does he have eyes everywhere?” Changkyun muttered under his breath as he started to get dressed, not wanting to cross metaphorical swords with Kihyun first thing Monday morning.

“Hyung?” Changkyun asked in a small voice as soon as the other side of the line picked up.

“ _Hmm?_ ” Minhyuk’s voice sounded fresh and awake through the phone.

“Are you up?” Changkyun looked out of the window of the passenger seat as Kihyun drove out of the building’s garage.

“ _Of course I’m up, Kyunnie. What kind of a stupid question is that? I’m already at the flower market picking the flowers for the bar tonight_ ,” Minhyuk replied with a distant voice and Changkyun couldn’t help himself but imagine Minhyuk with a phone between his shoulder and cheek while picking out the flowers.

“And when are you going to be at the bar?”

“ _I don’t know. I have to visit this old lady because it’s her birthday and being the good grandson I am, I have to go to the cemetery with a bouquet and to light a candle. Why?_ ”

“Oh… um, I-I wanted to ask you something, but I guess it could wait,” Changkyun said apologetically.

“ _I’m going to be back in the bar around 10:30, so around then, okay?_ ” Minhyuk’s voice sounded cheerful like always.

“Okay, I’ll come around 10:30,” Changkyun agreed and Minhyuk quickly hung up not even hearing the word of bye, probably busy with the flowers.

“So do you want to go back to the campus before you go to the bar. It’s just past 8,” Kihyun asked Changkyun while paying attention to his driving through the slow morning traffic.

“Not really, by the time I would get to campus I would already have to leave to take a bus to the bar. There has to be a café that is already opened somewhere around the bar. It’s downtown after all,” Changkyun replied shrugging. He pulled out his phone to search cafes around Minhyuk’s bar.

“There are a couple, yeah. But don’t you have a driver’s licence?”

“I don’t. My parents died before I could start it and after that I only focused on getting the grades so I could go to the same school as Hoseok hyung,” Changkyun said with a hint of sadness in his voice, but there was something in Kihyun’s expression that told him that he had already known about what happened to Changkyun’s parents even though the youngest had never talked about it to anyone in the family, only Hoseok knew. “But I’ve always liked speed bikes. However my mom said that only suicidal people rode them.”

Kihyun smiled at Changkyun’s words. “Yeah, people sometimes ride them like crazy. Do you want to get license for motor bikes?”

“One day, I guess,” Changkyun shrugged again and turned his eyes back out of the window by his right. “You can leave me off here,” Changkyun said as they stopped at a red light near Minhyuk’s bar. The café he was going to was just around the corner.

“Okay. Call Hyunwoo and Jooheon when you need to move your stuff,” Kihyun reminded him as the younger one left the car. Changkyun smiled at him through the window and waved at him. He tried to act cool, not think about what had happened over the weekend since it had been such a rollercoaster of everything.

Changkyun opened the door to Minhyuk’s bar at 10:45 and was welcomed by rock music. Minhyuk was smoking at the bar sipping coffee from an espresso cup as he filled out some paperwork.

“Hi, hyung,” Changkyun greeted him, placing his bag on a bar stool and reaching for a cigarette from Minhyuk’s pack.

“Hi, Kyunnie. Please by my guest and don’t ask when you want a cigarette,” Minhyuk responded sarcastically, but the fond smile he had on his face told Changkyun he didn’t give a fuck and only did it for the joke.

“Thanks, Minhyuk. You’re the best,” Changkyun followed Minhyuk’s suit and they both laughed shortly.

Dragging a third of a cigarette in one hit, Changkyun gathered his courage to ask about Kihyun but Minhyuk beat him to it and asked a question first. “So you want to get a bike licence?”

Changkyun blinked in shock, tapping his cigarette on an instinct. “How do you know about that?”

“Kihyun called me asking about it, of course,” Minhyuk smiled.

“Of course he did,” Changkyun shook his head in slight disbelief.

“Did you think he would let go? That’s not Ki, Kyun. He’s always a little more than extra, he just does things like these for people he cares about.”

“I know, I just…” Changkyun sighed. “I don’t know. I guess I’m still not used to this kind of treatment.”

“True. You have been a part of the family for half a year only. I have been a part for years, but Kihyun stopped buying shit for me, even though he loves to flex his money,” Minhyuk whined mockingly and Changkyun smirked at the older’s behaviour.

“You have money of your own, hyung.”

“Anyways, let’s not talk about my money. You’re not here because you want to get a driver’s licence,” Minhyuk stated and Changkyun nodded again, confirming pointlessly what Minhyuk had already known.

“Hyung, does Kihyun ever-“

“Does he ever just take random people home to fuck them?” Minhyuk cut Changkyun off and finished his question quickly because he knew the younger would poke around the bush and they would not get anywhere. “What?” Minhyuk laughed shortly. “It’s written all over your face, Kyunnie. Plus, of course, I know how and where you have spent your Sunday. I am the person, who holds information and trades it for valuable favours, Kyun. It’s basically my job, so wipe that shocked look of your face. It’s not drugs, weapons and money that move the wheels of the world. It’s information and favours.”

Changkyun was actually interested in what Minhyuk was saying so he gave it a little bit of thought and he realized that was exactly it, that rather than money controlling the world like everyone thought, it was what you knew about someone and how it could be used against or for that person. “I never thought of it that way,” he admitted out loud staring at Minhyuk.

“Of course you didn’t,” Minhyuk responded nonchalantly. “There was no reason for you to think about it. But now that you know, just be cautious with asking people for favors… the warning is for outside the family of course.” Minhyuk lit up another cigarette. “But let’s get back to your interesting question.” He inhaled the heavy smoke and stayed silent for a long moment. “Beside family no one had ever stepped a foot in that apartment. Not even a cleaner, Kihyun does everything himself. He is very careful about anyone and everyone, whom he lets into his life, our life. So _no_ , he doesn’t fuck just about anyone, Changkyunnie,” Minhyuk looked over to the young hacker and smiled when he saw Changkyun’s small soft smile and eyes that didn’t look at Minhyuk but somewhere into dreamland.

Suddenly Changkyun shook the dreamy feeling off and furrowed his brows. “Minhyuk, you said you are the one, who knows pretty much everything about everyone, right?”

“Yeah?” this time it was Minhyuk’s eyes that looked away. He was almost sure about what would be Kyun’s next question. “Why?”

“Does everyone know about what happened to my parents?” Changkyun asked in a small voice.

Minhyuk swallowed the lump in his throat. “No,” his answer was simple but there was more to that one word.

“Does Kihyun?”

“Yes,” Minhyuk whispered and inhaled as if he wanted to continue, but then suddenly stopped, like he decided he didn’t want to say it anymore.

“What?” a thick worry laced Changkyun’s voice.

“Well…” there was another break filled with just the two smoking. “He might know about it more than even you do.”

“What does that mean?” Changkyun question completely confused. How could Kihyun know more than Changkyun? What was there more to know? His parents died in an accident, there was nothing more to it.

There was a heavy sigh from Minhyuk as he placed the cigarette butt into an ashtray just like the one he smashed on Saturday. Another long hesitant silence followed. “Kihyun and I… Sera too, we didn’t want to… well, involve you like this, but… maybe… maybe it’s time you know.” Changkyun stayed silent, he didn’t want to ask any more questions or interrupt the bar owner. He just wanted to know what he was probably supposed to know quite some time ago. “It’s not by chance that I found out that you hacked a bank. It’s not by chance Kihyun wanted you to join out family. In Kihyun’s plan nothing happens by chance. I have had my eyes on you couple of months before you hacked the bank,” Minhyuk avoided Changkyun with his eyes as much as he could, looking everywhere but at him, however Changkyun was as confused as ever. “Your parents’ accident… was not… entirely an accident.”

“What? What do you mean?” Changkyun raised his voice and leaned closer to Minhyuk.

“Your father knew something Ryu Sungmoon didn’t want him to know and when your father didn’t want to accept his bribe, he became…” there was another short moment, but this one caused by Minhyuk searching for the right word, “inconvenient. So Ryu Sungmoon made an accident happen.”

Changkyun stared at Minhyuk in absolute disbelief and shock. How was that even possible? His dad was a scientist, there was no way he could have crossed Ryu Sungmoon’s path during his work…

“I’m sorry, Changkyunnie. I’m sorry about what happened to your parents, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you and I’m sorry you had to find out,” Minhyuk apologized for everything.

“Why?” Changkyun asked not looking at Minhyuk, but straight ahead at the bottled behind the bar. His mind was drowning in scenarios of what could have happened. “Why didn’t you tell me at the beginning?”

“In our family, Changkyunnie, everyone has lost someone to Ryu Sungmoon and you already lost your parents once. Nobody wanted to open an old wound,” Minhyuk replied sympathetically and noticed Changkyun’s eyes filled with tears, threatening to fall onto his cheeks. “We didn’t want you to harden into a shell or for your motivation to be the same as ours. Pain and desire for revenge can make one’s mind very clouded.”

Changkyun nodded in acknowledgment and lit up another cigarette, taking a drag and exhaling heavily. He thought about Minhyuk’s words and felt the older’s hand on his shoulder, but also felt that Minhyuk was leaving him alone with his thoughts to think about it. And that is exactly what he did. Many times he thought it over, milled it around in his head but every time he reached the same conclusion - had he known right at the beginning, he would have raged and demanded immediate revenge. But he knew Kihyun’s plan, or at least most of the plan, and it was stretched over year and years of careful planning and preparing for the final blow. Kihyun was definitely the one, who made the decision not to tell Changkyun about his parents’ real cause of death and Changkyun hated to admit, even if only to himself, that it was the right thing to do. He became even more determined to do this plan right, if that was even possible.

“Hyung?” Changkyun called out in a small voice looking at the bar owner, who was currently marking something into paper, while counting something below the bar. Minhyuk moved away from Changkyun to let him think, and he didn’t even realized he had been out of it for long enough for Minhyuk to go back to work. Minhyuk looked at him curiously from behind the bar, awaiting the question. “You don’t have to tell me anything of course, but… the breakdown you had on Saturday… does it have anything to do with, whom you have lost to Ryu Sungmoon? The relationship you have with Sera is more, right?”

Minhyuk’s eyes soften and he nodded his head slowly. He took a deep shaky breath in before speaking. “Sera is my angel. She saved me from a very dark place when my first angel left,” Minhyuk’s voice broke a couple of times and Changkyun’s heart tugged with guilt for even asking a question that inflicted so much pain on a person, who usually beamed with good energy only. “Minyoung, never deserved the horrors she went through. She was only 12, when that disgusting monster Ryu Sungmoon took her on her way from school and raped her.” Changkyun’s gut dropped somewhere below the ground and heavy pain laid on his chest, tears filled his eyes again as Minhyuk’s spilled onto his fair cheeks. “When we got her back, she never spoke, fell into deep depression, stopped eating and looked very malnourished. Nothing helped. We talked to her, counselors and psychologists talked to her, police talked to her, but nothing. She said nothing. And then one day not long after, she screamed in terrible pain and terror, so I ran to her room and when I got there, blood was all over her bed and there was so much of it. I was 14 and didn’t know what to do, so I called an ambulance. But by the time they got there, my sister laid lifeless in my arms. Minyoung died on her bed of blood loss due to miscarriage of Ryu Sungmoon’s…” Minhyuk’s voice broke and a single sob came out, his head bowed to the floor, shoulders slumped. Suddenly the bar fell quiet and Minhyuk shook his head, straightened his shoulders and looked up, staring intently into Changkyun’s eyes. “Just a couple of months later, Kihyun and Sera found me, I was in massive depressions and woke up screaming from nightmares every night. Our house was terrible, my family in shambles, my parents barely spoke to each other, but not because they didn’t love each other - it was because neither of them was able to was to say any words of consoling meaning. At the time police still had no idea, who had done it, but Kihyun and Sera came to me and showed me evidence it was him. They pulled me out of a dark hole and took me into their own small family that at the time consisted only of them two. And Sera became my angel.”

Changkyun processed the story for a moment and said in a small but determined voice: “I’m sorry.”

Minhyuk shook his head and smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You don’t have to be sorry for what happened to my sister, you weren’t the cause of it. And as for asking and opening an old wound of mine… well,” Minhyuk shrugged, “now you know the reasons for Saturday night and now you understand how this family works and why it does things the way it does just a little bit more.”

Changkyun nodded in agreement and smiled thankfully at Minhyuk.

“But I warn you, Changkyunnie, don’t ask the others even if you’re curious. They will tell you at their own volition. I found out about Sera’s real reasons years after she became my little angel. It’s not easy for us to talk about this stuff,” Minhyuk warned the youngest member of their family in a kind but hurt voice.

“I won’t, hyung. Don’t worry. Can I ask you just one last question?”

“Go ahead.”

“What happened to your parents?”

Minhyuk sighed heavily and seemed reluctant to answer the give question. “They left. After I started spending my time with Kihyun and Sera, they called them ‘the bad crowd’. I protested and told them they didn’t understand. In return, they told me we were going to move to Canada, where my dad got a job offer and we would start a new life there. But I didn’t want that. I already had a new life, with a new purpose. I was 15 when I ran away from home and went to live with Kihyun, changed schools and spent all of my time with my new family. Kihyun falsified all of the paperwork needed and I never spoke to my parents again.”

“Didn’t they look for you?”

“They did. And that one time the police found me, Kihyun got me out of it. I don’t know how, and back then I didn’t ask. I was just grateful he did. And now… it’s irrelevant. Coffee?” he asked Changkyun as made the couple steps towards the coffee machine.

“Please,” Changkyun nodded and smile as best as he could at his hyung. He was happy that he now knew more about him, even though the story was what it was - sad and tragic. And now, yet again, Minhyuk’s words about information being what moved the wheels of the world sunk even deeper. “Hyung? Joint?”

Minhyuk looked at him, corners of his lips turned up and he winked at Changkyun in agreement, setting an espresso in front of the younger one.

|Sera POV|

Sera couldn’t decide which she hated more - the cold stone laid on the floor of the house she was forced to grow up in, leaving no happy memories from the age of 8 _or_ the man sitting at the head of the table, who called himself her uncle.

She reached the conclusion very quickly, though. It was definitely _him_ that she hated more. The black marble floor could be broken and removed, remodelled and made pretty and not as cold. But the man… there was only one thing that could have been done. And it was to come soon, Sera knew that and that’s why she became Kihyun’s family at the beginning of this all in the first place - because they had the same goal.

These ‘family’ lunches he made her have with him were only a charade to keep proving that he still had power over her, after she moved out of this fucking dungeon when she was 17. Of course he agreed, there was no need to take care of her anymore. Plus, he could trust Kihyun to take care of her, after all Kihyun had the same look in his eyes like young Ryu Sungmoon used to have (his words, not Sera’s).

“Thank you for the meal, uncle. But I still have a lot of work to do now that we’re setting up the new security protocol to guard the blinds after Ming’s threats. As you very well know they cover a fairly large amount of sales for the Ryu family,” Sera reminded the older man of the reason for her to leave that place as soon as possible.

“Of course, I know. Go do your work,” he said, but there was nothing else than order in his voice. Order and superiority.

Sera left the house as quickly as she could without making it look suspicious. She got into her car and drove around the first corner before stopping the car abruptly, hurriedly getting out of the driver’s seat and threw up all the food she had just eaten. Her stomach has never turned upside down like this, somehow she always stomached everything really well, even Ryu Sungmoon. But then again, it wouldn’t be the first time he had poisoned her food to ‘train’ her. Hyungwon found out she had become allergic to many poisons that could be easily hidden in food and water without leaving smell or a bitter taste.

“That son of a bitch,” she cursed him again and again, once all the food had been out of her system - not that she had eaten a lot of it in the first place. A couple of bites at best and one sip of water. “Fucking piece of shit.”

Getting back to her car and driving away as fast as the streets allowed her, the acidic taste in her mouth disgusted her and she dialed Hyungwon’s number, anger boiling in her.

Hyungwon picked up on the second ring with a soft voice. “ _Sera?_ ”

“That mother fucker tried to poison me again,” she spat out in a disgusted voice.

“ _Did you get it out?_ ” Hyungwon asked concerned.

“Yeah, I just threw up.”

“ _Then come to me, I’ll take you to eat_ ,” Hyungwon offered and Sera just imagined the soft smile Hyungwon probably had on his face right now. The smile she loved so much.

 _A Ryu is not worthy to be loved,_ her inside voice told her again.

“What will you take me out to eat?” her tone changed unconsciously.

Hyungwon must have noticed because the voice that sounded through the speaker of the hands free phone through the car softened even further. “ _How about wonton soup from that Chinese place in that back alley of the traditional market?_ ”

“The one where only Chinese immigrants eat?”

“ _The same one._ ”

“Okay… I’ll come pick you up,” she said softly, realizing she had headed in the direction of Hyungwon’s office a long time ago already.

“ _No. Come here. I’ll drive_ ,” Hyungwon protested.

“Okay.”

“ _See you soon_ ,” Hyungwon hung up and Sera was left alone with her mind again.

_Monsters like you don’t deserve earthly angels like him._

Sera shook her head to try and get rid of the thoughts but to no avail. For a second she thought that she saw someone sitting next to her in the passenger seat out of the corner of her eye, but one she turned around there was no one. _Of course, it was empty. Who would be in the car with me?_

“I hate how quiet this car is,” Sera stated for the nth time as she sat in the passenger seat of Hyungwon’s Tesla Model X. She loved the roar of the Jaguar’s engine, she loved manual transmissions, so even sitting in a car like a Tesla with automatic transmission and an electric engine that made zero noise just didn’t feel right to her. Jooheon’s new Shelby was her second favorite for sure, Mustang’s had the sound that one, who loved cars could appreciate it even though the old-old ones were the never dying classic. Most of the time Hyunwoo sat next to Jooheon in the passenger seat, which left Sera either driving her own car or in the back seat, which wasn’t as comfortable as the front but she was short so she didn’t really mind. Plus, she got to drive a couple of times with and without Jooheon and still liked her own car better.

“That’s why I like it,” Hyungwon said, never taking his eyes off the busy street. “It’s like me - a silent threat.”

“Yeah, his skin is a little bit more ashy that the last time I saw him,” Sera agreed approvingly. “But I don’t want him to die just yet. He needs to suffer.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Sera,” Hyungwon replied in a kind manner. “With the amounts I’m giving him, it would take him years to die. It’s more like a safety pin.”

“Can we talk about something other than Ryu Sungmoon?” she asked quickly shutting the subject up.

“Do you have anything to talk about?” Hyungwon questioned her with a small grin.

“What do you think was Kihyun’s activity on Sunday?” her mischievous side came out again. Hyungwon loved it, frankly, he just loved her.

“Well… I think it involved a lot of moving in tight spaces,” Hyungwon laughed out and Sera joined him.

The two got out of the car at the traditional market, where vendors were selling everything from fruit and vegetables to fish and hand made products while shouting prices and offers, trying to be the louder ones. Sera and Hyungwon politely refused offers thrown at them and made their way through the occasional crowded areas that were caused by both groups of tourists and arguing locals trying to haggle.

Somewhere midway when a big crowd was passing, Hyungwon grabbed Sera’s hand to guide her through the crowd, even though she knew perfectly well where to go. At first she wanted to enjoy the skin contact but the voice in the back of her mind made an appearance again.

_Your hands are covered in blood and you’re staining him!_

So Sera quickly withdrew her hand from Hyungwon’s letting the crowd part them. She didn’t know what had awoken these thought since it had been almost a year since she’d last heard them.

When she reached the restaurant, better called a hole in the wall with plastic tables and plastic chairs where both their clothes and appearances didn’t fit in at all, Hyungwon was already standing there with arms crossed over his chest and a disapproving look on his face.

“Why did you let go of my hand?” he asked her accusingly.

“My hand got sweaty,” she replied with an apologetic smile.

“Your hands are always cold and dry,” Hyungwon didn’t believe her a single word. “Are the voices back?” Hyungwon’s intense inquisitive look made Sera turn her eyes away and jump everywhere but at him. “I told you to tell me when they come back,” he said sternly but love was seeping out of the soft expression of his face.

“I’m hungry, Won. Let’s just eat,” Sera pushed past Hyungwon into the tiny Chinese place and greeted the owner lady with a bright smile, while Hyungwon just sighed heavily knowing that there was no way he could move that mountain.

Sera parked her car at the bottom of Kihyun’s apartment building on the Thursday night. Hoseok has requested to meet the rest of the family saying he discovered something disturbing while doing his regular sweep.

Once inside, she took off her shoes and strolled into the living room noticing that she was the last one arriving.

“So, we’re all here, Hoseok hyung. What did you find?” Changkyun asked worried. He sat on the couch near Kihyun, who stood at the window. The youngest could reach out with his hand and touch Kihyun at any point, he looked so home-y settled in the couch.

“Do you have something to tell me, Kihyun?” Sera asked him directly, not letting Hoseok say a word. Hoseok called her the previous night, fairly late, saying that he found something disturbing. At first Sera thought it would be trivial when she asked Hoseok to tell her about it, because frankly, the older hacker found a lot of things disturbing in their world. However, this time he found something that Sera just couldn’t let completely slide, after all it was against all the principles the family was standing on. Mainly, the trust part.

Kihyun turned his eyes to Sera and for the first time in a very long time, she couldn’t read him. She had always been able to read him, mainly because Kihyun told her how to and allowed her to see the emotions on his face, which was a privilege not many people had. But now… he was blank. “You don’t need to know everything. It’s better that way. In case things don’t go completely as planned, you guys can back out and be fine, continue with the original plan. I don’t want anybody to get hurt,” he tried to assure the family scattered across his living room with a strict face. In a heartbeat, Changkyun’s stare changed - at first he looked at Kihyun as if he hung the Moon and the stars and the next moment deep confusion knitted his brows together in a frown.

“Kihyun, do we look like we need a back door?” Sera walked over to where he was standing. The rest still kept quiet. For a moment Jooheon felt like the vibe was similar to ‘the oldest siblings talking and the younger ones should just wait for the result’. “I told you before, remember? And I'm telling you again and again. I’m all in. Always.”

Since they were kids Sera had known all the dirty little secrets Kihyun kept from the world. She knew from the beginning that Kihyun was Ryu Sungmoon’s bastard child and that he planned to ruin his life and make him suffer just like the son of a bitch was the cause for his and his mother’s suffering after her family kicked her out because she said she wouldn’t give up a bastard child, even though she was from a highly respected family and was to marry soon to an heir of a big conglomerate. Kihyun’s mother was kicked out mercilessly without a single penny, without much skill in her life, especially due to her fairly young age of 19 and the fact she hadn’t done much work up to that point, especially physical work. Nevertheless, she left and never bothered her family again, never bothered Ryu Sungmoon again because she was far too proud to ask for help from either side. Kihyun had been raised in quite poor surroundings, however his mother was a smart woman, who made Kihyun study hard not only at school but also learn Kihyun all the possible and impossible skills, namely people skills, he would need to do well in his life, even if it meant deceive and manipulate people into what he wanted them to do, since that was what she was good at in the first place, though she couldn’t seem to get herself out of the slump. That was mainly caused by what Kihyun had only realized after her death - she had given all the money into Kihyun’s education and well-being, leaving nothing for herself. And that is how she got him into the middle school where he met Sera just a couple of weeks before his mother died of tuberculosis. At first, he didn’t notice the quiet girl that always sat at the back of the class, he was too focused on his studies to make his mother’s investments in him pay off. When his mother died, she left him a letter explaining how they got into the situation they have been living in, who his father was, who his grandparents were. The big envelope also included her savings for his life and her signature mock ups and templates. In the letter, she said he’s better off on his own and that he should not let anyone know she wasn’t alive anymore. Kihyun took his mother’s letter very seriously and he didn’t do much other than plan something somehow sometime, but then he realized the name Ryu sounded familiar, so he approached the girl in the back of the class with the name Ryu Sera. And that’s when the plan had started to form and the two became a family, after he had shown Sera the reason why she didn’t have one of her own.

Kihyun made the two steps towards Sera and hugged her for the first time in a long time. “I love you, little sister.”

“I love you, too,” she hugged him back.

“So what is this disturbing thing that Hoseok discovered?” Jooheon questioned from the back.

“Hoseok probably have discovered the larger amount of chemicals I have asked Hyungwon to get so we can start the production of spice,” Kihyun admitted and a loud terrified gasp escaped Changkyun’s lips. “We are going to start production soon and slip a couple of moles into the Ming’s blinds and sell it under their name.”

“Why the Ming family?” Hyunwoo asked curiously. “They are more into the crystal meth and heroin and some other hard lucids. The Godfather’s grounds are a little bit of a better market, since they have history with that already. Apart from other things they've done to us.”

“True,” Minhyuk agreed. “But Ming has started to experiment and explore the world of spice.”

“And that’s where we fall in. We will start selling stronger spice on their grounds trying to raise little suspicion, blaming it on misuse,” Kihyun said, but Hoseok abruptly stood up with a protest in his face.

“But spice can kill people!” he shouted accusingly and everyone except Changkyun kept a stone cold face.

“All drugs can kill people, Hoseok,” Sera reminded him indifferent.

“I’m not in on this,” Hoseok looked at her in disbelief and disagreement.

“Hoseok, calm down please,” Hyunwoo’s voice sounded from behind him in an authoritative manner.

“Why drag in the Ming family, though?” Hyungwon’s curious gaze turned to Kihyun, speaking for the first time.

“I wanted to leave petty stuff like this out of the equation, but,” Kihyun’s eyes traveled to Sera and the rest of the sentence didn’t need to be spoken.

“No. They should pay,” Minhyuk spoke with no mercy walked to the balcony, lighting up a cigarette on the way. Kihyun didn’t even have enough time to protest.

“But what role does Ming Zhan play in this plan? Sorry, but I’m not catching up,” Changkyun questioned with a confused face, much to Hoseok’s dismay, he was on board. What he heard earlier this week from Minhyuk changed his outlook on a couple of things in the world.

“Minhyuk?” Kihyun shot the smoking guy on the balcony a much telling look.

Minhyuk smirked and took a long drag of his cigarette. “Ming Zhan is a childhood friend of General Song. He’s also been paying him off for more than a half of his life. Everybody in the country knows who Ming Zhan is and what he does but the police never had a clue, a string, a hair on Ming Zhan because General Song and his rats have been generously paid off to keep quiet and hide his tracks,” Minhyuk explained.

“But you do the same, hyung,” Changkyun still didn’t quite understand what made the difference between Ming Zhan and Yoo Kihyun in this situation.

“He doesn’t,” Sera said. “Ryu Sungmoon does.”

“Outside Ryu family, Yoo Kihyun is a CEO, a clean CEO,” Jooheon joined in to explain further. An understanding ‘o’ formed on Changkyun’s lips and his eyes lit up.

“And that’s how he falls into the plan, Kyun. Spice has become a much discussed drug recently, as it went from a rather harmless thing sold in tourist shops to being more and more modified by being made out of chemicals and as it fell under prohibition it quickly became a very dangerous drug that can kill very easily. We just need a little more attention to be paid to these cases by the public, we need them to demand to be looked into why the track have always been covered after Ming Zhan and his connections to General Song,” Kihyun explained the final leg and silence fell over his living room. Changkyun’s face was full of admiration, while Minhyuk’s beamed with amusement, Hyunwoo nodded in agreement, while Jooheon, Sera and Hyungwon kept their face closer to neutral. But then, there was Hoseok - his face was terrified and stunned by the words he had just heard.

“I’m out of here,” he turned on the spot and briskly walked out of the living room, muttering the word ‘ _psychos’_ under his breath.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Sera said and with a small smile on her face left the room as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think about Minhyuk's and Kihyun's story? Meeting Changkyun was also not a coincidence at all and Hoseok walked away. Is he going to come back? (>︿<)
> 
> Please share your thoughts and opinions with me in the comments (￣y▽￣)╭ <3
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter and hopefully we'll see each other in the next one ^^ Stay safe and healthy! (～￣▽￣)～ bye bye


	7. The Pawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hoseok makes a decision.

|Hoseok POV|

Hoseok stormed out of Kihyun’s apartment and never wanted to see any of them again. In the last half a year, he understood how important the plan was to these people. Even after a little bit of prying out of Changkyun and a lot of connecting dots, he figured out a bit of Minhyuk’s reason for desiring the plan to work out and Hoseok was sad to admit he would probably do the same had he been in Minhyuk’s situation.

But killing people? No, Hoseok was not going to just stand there and agree with it. On top of that, he seriously thought that Changkyun would stand on his side, however since they moved to the safe house Hoseok had noticed that Changkyun, the little kid, had a different aura around him and that Hoseok had no right to call him a little kid any longer. Nevertheless, they had no right to play gods in the lives of ordinary humans, even if they were junkies.

“You walk fast,” a familiar voice startled Hoseok from next to him on the right and he focused his eyes on Sera, someone he called a little sister until just 10 minutes ago. Hoseok never even realized that he had been out of the building and was headed in an unknown direction, lost in his thoughts. Frankly, he was confused as to why Sera was there. He stopped in his tracks, Sera followed his suit. “Ahhh, you expected Kyun to follow you out rather than me.”

Hoseok hated how well everyone could read everyone in this family but he couldn’t read anything other than programs, coding techniques and binary codes, which still baffled Changkyun as to why he had failed math. Hoseok aced the class, or would ace the class, but he’d wanted to stay closer to Kyun for one more year, having the hunch something would go wrong. “I more expected no one to go after me.”

“Oh, come on... really?”

“Just leave it, Sera. Leave me alone,” he asked of her with a frown and started to walk again. Sera was still frozen in place and something told him that couldn’t have been the end to this.

Sera sighed heavily, as if thinking over a decision of something important. But Hoseok just kept walking. “Do you want to hear a story?” she called out after him. At this Hoseok stopped.

 _A story? Does she mean…?_ Hoseok thought to himself and turned around. Sera was still in the same spot with a smug smirk on her face.

She unfroze and walked over to Hoseok. “Let’s make a deal.”

Hoseok just silently waited for her to continue, but noticed she was actually just waiting for an answer, so he just nodded simply.

“I’ll tell you a story of a girl I knew, I can’t tell you any other story, because those are not mine to tell, but in return, I want you to think about it, even if just a little bit. And if after you have thought about it, you still want to leave… go. I’ll make sure none of us is after you and we will never interfere with your life again. Well, maybe I’ll occasionally check up on you, but you’d never know. I would just make sure nobody is doing you any harm.”

Hoseok scoffed at the quick change in Sera’s attitude. She went from serious and sad to typical Sera in a heartbeat. “Okay. I’ll hear what you have to say.”

“But, I also tell better stories when I smoke, so…”

When Hoseok passed the threshold of Sera’s apartment he was shocked to find it so… _empty_ , for the lack of a better word. There was all the furniture that was supposed to be there, yes, but there was nothing else - no pictures, no plants, no decorations, it was just clean and small. Hoseok didn’t know why he thought that Sera’s apartment would be bigger but maybe he got the impression from Kihyun’s penthouse.

“How long have you lived here?” Hoseok asked while taking his shoes off at the entrance. The flat was in a newer building, maximum a couple years old and it had living room right out of the entrance connected in one room with the kitchen that looked barely used, maybe except the coffee machine and the one small white cup next to it. There was nothing else on the counter, no memo on the fridge, it looked like no one lived there. The bathroom was right next to the entrance and on the other wall from the kitchen was another door that Hoseok supposed would be Sera’s bedroom.

“Umm, a couple of years, I had to move out of the last place because Kihyun wanted to get me a nicer flat than the one we used to live together in after he got the position of CEO and needed an apartment that would look representative of a CEO had anybody ever decided to dig into him,” Sera answered Hoseok as she washed her hands meticulously with almost a surgeon’s habit. He watched her thinking there also has to be reason for her to scrub her hands so vigorously. “You didn’t actually think he wanted to get a penthouse like that one, did you? He’s going to sell it the moment he has the chance.”

“Hm. Not my business,” Hoseok shrugged and walked towards the kitchen and opened the fridge. Except water, couple of takeout cold brew coffee cups there was nothing else. Not even a sauce. “Do you actually live here?”

“Of course I live here. My things are here,” Sera scoffed and walked over to the balcony.

 _Is that the definition of living somewhere?_ he had to ask himself.

“Do you want one? Because I definitely want a whole one,” Sera showed Hoseok a first aid box and when he shot her a confused glance she opened it and his eyes went wide. There was a small zip lock bag full of greenish weed, 2 grinders, small glass pipes, rolling papers, filters, a bag of tobacco, a lighter and some pre-rolled joints in plastic cases. “It’s a long story and not one I like telling, per se, so…”

Hoseok sat onto one of the 2 chairs she had out there on the balcony, opposite her, and looked out at the city view. It was pretty and he understood now why she liked to smoke at home. It was pretty calming to sit there and look at the busy streets bellow. “I’m not forcing you to tell me.”

“I know. I offered, but I’m just saying…” she gave him the voice she mentioned was only for Hyungwon and shrugged slightly. She nestled her body into a comfortable position in the chair and clicked her lighter, lighting her joint and passing the lighter to Hoseok, who repeated the same actions. There was a moment of silence, disturbed only by the street sounds from below and the sounds of their huffs. “I had parents, you know…”

“Everyone has them, Sera,” Hoseok interrupted her harshly, still slightly irritated from the conversation before. “That’s how you’re born.”

“True,” she fell silent again for a long moment.

“So?” he reminded her. “How does it continue?”

“Oh sorry,” Sera chuckled and took another hit. “Got distracted for a second there. I don’t really remember them, even though they were killed when I was 8, and I should be able to, right? I was old enough to be able to remember things already, right? But what happened in the years after made me not only lose all memories, except one, but also my conscience. I bet you’ve heard that I’m a heartless monster before.”

“I haven’t,” Hoseok admitted, his brows furrowing. He knew Sera had a violent streak, he saw it during both fights with his own two eyes and then heard stories from Jooheon and Hyunwoo and also the one about how she got away from the two guys from the Ming family. But he’s never heard about her nickname before. She said it was simple - _monster_.

“Well, now… you’ll see why I have been called that by both Ryu Sungmoon, his ‘business’ partners and his enemies,” Sera took a deep hit in, held her breath and started talking while both smoked their respective joints in a calm manner. The stuff was strong, but Hoseok’s tolerance had been built up over the course of the years he’d been smoking to concentrate better on his work. But even though the weed was definitely hitting the spot, Sera’s words still hit Hoseok deeper as she kept on talking in a monotonous voice and he never interrupted her while she talked about the many many reasons for her revenge. He didn’t know for how long she spoke but he gave her his undivided attention, occasionally smoking and passing a lighter between each other when the heat of their joints died down.

When Sera finished talking Hoseok stayed silent. The balcony was quiet and the only light came from inside since they left the light on in the kitchen, creating soft shadows contrasting the harsh details of Sera’s story. Hoseok just kept staring out over the city at the flickering light that would never get to hear a story such as this one and he didn’t even notice the first tear that fell down his cheek silently but he was thankful Sera decided not to comment even though she obviously must have noticed it. Hoseok wiped it off quickly and looked over at Sera, whose face was indifferent as if she hadn’t just told him about how at the age of 8, during that fateful night, she killed 4 full grown men - no not men, _assassins_ \- with the sharp ritual sword of her father’s collection after they murdered both her parents. She caught them by surprise and killed with the precision her father taught her to protect herself from a very young age. Sera said that was the only memory she had of her parents - them lying in a pool of blood, each with a gunshot wound in the center of their foreheads and a lifeless stare in their eyes. Not to mention how neutrally she talked about all the things that had been done to her and that she had done to people. How she would cut off pieces of their bodies to send as messages; or curve scars into the skin so that they never forget her or what they’ve done; or all the countless torturing methods she knew because they had either been used on her or she put people through the experience.

All of that made Hoseok think about how the nickname was more accurate than not. But then he looked at her curled up on the chair, hugging her knees and had it not been for the last bit of the joint left in her hand that she was now rolling around between her fingers mindlessly, Hoseok would think he was looking at a 20 year old girl with her head in the clouds, rather than a woman, of 26 who had gone through way more than she should have lived through.

“Thank you,” Hoseok finally said, voice hoarse from not using and from the smoke.

“We’re family,” she shrugged it off.

“Not for that. Not for the story,” Hoseok kept staring at the person he had the privilege to call little sister. Sera raised a confused brow at him. “For talking to me in your Hyungwon attitude.”

“Well, don’t get used to it,” her attitude jumped back to the regular Sera and Hoseok smiled as the situation felt lighter again, even though the weight of the story will now stay with him forever.

“It was nice to see it once,” Hoseok sighed contently. “But can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll be honest, I’m no Minhyuk, but I know some place where I can get information and I’m fairly quick in coming to the right conclusions, hence my ability to write a program pretty fast, so…”

“Spill it, Hoseok,” she laughed at him for beating around the bush. It was a bad habit of his that he got from his mom.

“Changkyun’s parents’ death wasn’t really an innocent accident.”

“Where is the question?” Sera smirked even though it was a pretty serious thing to talk about.

Hoseok scoffed. “Was it?”

“It wasn’t. Kyun’s dad knew a little too much about something Ryu Sungmoon didn’t want anybody to know about, on top of which he refused to take money to keep silent and Ryu Sungmoon didn’t like that,” Sera responded truthfully.

“But an accident of a renowned scientist and his wife on an empty road would be investigated surely,” Hoseok gave voice to his thought quietly, which was another habit he got after spending year alone with numbers and codes on the screen of his computer.

“Of course. The police was involved but General Song himself stopped the pointless investigation of an _obvious_ car accident,” Sera snickered at the statement she had just made.

“So Song was involved with that.”

“Him and many more. Say, do you know who’s the Chief Detective of the so called ‘underground units’?” she questioned Hoseok curiously. “Share one more?” Sera pointed to the first aid kit and Hoseok shook his head. He was high enough and he didn’t like over doing it. He stayed quiet waiting or Sera to continue. “Name’s Yoo Hongjoon.”

Sera could practically see the wheels turning fast in Hoseok’s brain and the fume coming out of his ears from concentrations. His face was so easily legible and when the imaginary light bulb over his head lit up Sera smiled. “Kihyun’s father?”

“Grandfather,” Sera corrected him. “Kihyun’s mom had him early.” Then Sera fell silent again. Just like she said, she wasn’t going to tell Hoseok any of the others’ stories but if he had figured them out on his own, at least roughly, then she couldn’t be blamed, right?

“But Kihyun wouldn’t join a drug cartel if his grandfather was the chief detective, unless…” Hoseok mumbled to himself again turning the lighter in his hand round and round. “Did his mother have him out of marriage?”

“Yes.”

“Therefore, the father must have been the reason she got tossed out of the family. Kihyun said he grew up in poor environment and the family of a chief detective, who takes bribes from the biggest animals in the underground surely wouldn’t live poor. So, had the father been the reason she was kicked out?” Hoseok kept thinking out loud, amusing the hell out of Sera, who unnoticed by Hoseok had been smiling like a lunatic watching another crazy person talk to himself.

Then a loud snap sounded through the sound and Hoseok straightened his body on the chair, rolling his shoulders back. His eyes snapped back to Sera’s smiling face and with a shocked face he exclaimed: “Ryu Sungmoon is Kihyun’s father!”

Sera nodded at his assumption.

“That’s why he wants to ruin him as much as he wants to ruin the general and the chief detective. If not more.”

“Clever,” Sera had to give it him. Hoseok figured it out on his own with not that many hints. But then again Sera had no idea how much he had been able to find out or if maybe Minhyuk mentioned a snippet of information here and there, which would happen occasionally when his guard was down around the family.

Hoseok sat back down and another long while of silence followed as he processed all of the information from the balcony talk.

When Hoseok was finally standing at the door, about to leave Sera’s apartment, he looked at her with soft eyes. “Do you mind?”

“Do I mind what?” Sera was back to her old self and Hoseok couldn’t be happier, even though he did like soft Sera, he was a much bigger fan of the regular attitude.

He leaned in and gave Sera a quick kiss on the cheek, just like Minhyuk always did. Sera didn’t protest and only smirked as Hoseok left the flat to go to his own he now shared with Changkyun, wondering if the younger was even going to be there in the first place.

The moment Hoseok stepped out of Sera’s apartment building he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out an old cigarette pack that he had only kept for the nostalgia and to remind himself why he had quit almost 2 years ago. But the joint at Sera’s place had done nothing to help ease his racing mind, on the contrary, it made him thing even more. And when Hoseok needed to think, he needed to keep his fingers busy.

Walking along the road, mindlessly smoking, Hoseok arrived at the subway station considering whether he even wanted to go home or not.

_Home…_

Something he had taken as a given when he was a child. It was always there, his mother was home when he came from school or when he needed to be helped with his homework.

_I have always taken it for granted._

Taking a look at his unfinished cigarette Hoseok leaned on to the wall next to the subway station entrance and decided he would go to the apartment he now called his home. Because even if Changkyun had been a part of what he had called home for years now, he would rather be surrounded by things they shared (because they shared everything) rather than spend the night around strangers in the sleepless city.

Hoseok finished his cigarette and chucked the butt into the sewers through canal cover and walked into the subway station, completely oblivious of the black car that had closely followed him from Sera’s place.

Hoseok quietly opened the door of the safe house biometric lock, noticing Changkyun’s shoes at the entrance, he smiled to himself. Then he heard his voice coming from the living room. He headed there quietly.

“Hyung, stop already. I told you I didn’t check where he went and I’m not going to,” his deep voice sounded frustrated with the person on the other side of the line. Changkyun was standing in the very dimply lit room by the floor to ceiling window with a lit cigarette comfortably nesting between his fingers. “I don’t think he wouldn’t come back for his stuff at least. And the fact that I came home and he wasn’t here but his things were only proves my point. He only went to vent and breathe some fresher air.”

Changkyun stayed silent for a while, taking a drag from the cigarette, listening to what whichever of his hyungs had to say to him. Hoseok felt a little guilty for eavesdropping on a conversation that wasn’t his to listen to, but he wanted to know more. At least a little bit more.

“I already told you,” Changkyun growled angrily his time. “Even if he leaves he will never ever tell anything.”

No, Hoseok wouldn’t. And he was happy that Changkyun knew it.

“Whatever, if you want to be like this then fuck off,” Changkyun spat into the phone, hanging up in a hasty manner and throwing the phone on the couch behind, then he took another deep drag from the cigarette.

Deciding it’s time to get out of hiding, Hoseok casually walked into the living room from around the corner and plopped himself on the couch. “I guess Kihyun is nervous.”

Changkyun turned around and showed Hoseok a satisfied smile. “It was actually Jooheon. Kihyun had been calm the whole time. Not sure why Jooheon feels like you’re not trustworthy because you walked out in that situation. Hell, I almost did,” Changkyun said and threw his body on the couch opposite Hoseok, lifting his feet onto the coffee table.

“I wouldn’t have… if you stopped keeping secrets, Kyun,” Hoseok told him in a serious voice and Changkyun shot him a surprised glance. “We made promises and look at us, we’re already breaking them.”

“Sorry, hyung. It’s just a little overwhelming… all of this,” Changkyun shrugged and put out the butt of the cigarette in the ashtray beside his hand. “I should have told you when I found out. My par-“

“I know, Kyun,” Hoseok interrupted him, taking out his pack again. He pulled out a cigarette with one smooth motion, so familiar to him that it scared him to the bone marrow. _I really shouldn’t start again_ , he thought to himself.

“How?” Changkyun questioned confused.

“I connected the dots,” Hoseok lit up his cigarette with the practiced motion and his stare fell onto Changkyun’s face. “But it’s okay, now I’m the one, who knows more.”

“What do you know?” Changkyun leaned forward curiously, all of the previous problems forgotten.

Hoseok smirked mysteriously and exhaled deeply, white smoke coming out of his mouth and the nicotine rush made his head spin slightly. “A story I cannot tell.”

Changkyun nodded his head in acknowledgement. “Yeah, I know one too.” Changkyun’s eyes find Hoseok’s again and with an arrogant cocky grin he added: “I thought you wanted to stop.”

“Today’s a better day than any to pick up stuff I missed,” Hoseok replied but his mind was already thinking of all the possibilities of making the program he was currently writing a better one, a faster one, a more malicious one. Everything. He would do everything to protect his family and to help them get the revenge they craved, even if it wasn’t really the solution to any problem.

And the reason for his sudden heart change?

It was the little 8-year-old girl that lost everything that could be called home. It was the 15-year-old lanky nerdy kid with a top tier laptop that always tried to hide from bullies after his parents died in an 'accident'. It was the very young mother that was kicked out of her own home for wanting to raise the child that was growing under her heart. All of those and many more.

Hoseok felt like something was off. It wouldn’t be a lie if he said that he felt like he was being watched. There was that weird looking guy in the library of his university 4 days ago, then those two in the subway the next day, who haven’t left his proximity until he reached the door to the old apartment building where he lived with Changkyun now. Since then, he had only left the apartment once to buy some groceries Kyun asked him to and there was the same car parked in front of the shop that he noticed from the window the night before when he decided not to light up inside. Hoseok hadn’t even gone to the gym when Hyunwoo called him and refused to go to lectures.

He hasn’t told anyone yet, at first he wanted to figure it out on his own and deal with these people that were following him somehow other than calling Hyunwoo or Sera to deal with it. It has been a week since his talk with Sera at her place. They have talked since then, yes, but he hadn’t mentioned anything about feeling like he was being followed.

But then the idea flashed in his mind when he stood on the balcony tonight again when he sound the car parked ‘inconspicuously’ in the street near the house. The interior was illuminated by the phones the men in the car were using. So of course, it was a piece of cake for Wonho to hack someone phone if he knew whom he was after. But now, not knowing which phone was his target it became a little bit more challenging.

Wonho was game, though. He was so game… For quite some time the bug program him and Kyun were developing was causing him a headache and deserved a reward for being a major pain in his eyes. So, he thought that a little bit of a distraction wouldn’t hurt him.

Taking his laptop, Wonho sat himself at his big desk where his table top PC was running. Having now two connected computers he was ready to start.

The first thing Wonho did was to tune in the city CCTV cameras around his place to check where the car hadn’t moved. He was lucky (and they were stupid) because they actually parked so close to the camera that he could screenshot the car and (even though with some difficulty) make out the car plate.

“Idiots,” Wonho muttered to himself, his eyes flying across the 3 screens of his PC-laptop set up. He noticed an unfinished pack of Pepero on his desk and reached for a cookies and cream covered cookie stick

The second thing he needed to do was to get their phone receiving signals. Each phone had a unique receiving signal (after all that is how the phone operator’s system knows how to differentiate users) and therefore he had to get the signals from his radius, for which he had to first determine his radius. Simple and easy. Wonho got the phone towers covering his quarter and then overlapped them to get a more precise location and this had narrowed down the number of signals in his (relatively) close proximity down to 56 phones.

“56,” he whispered, pulling out another Pepero stick. He nibbled on the top, while his fingers flew across the keyboard, quickly typing up an algorithm that automatically differentiated women’s phones from men’s phones. How? Simply - it went through the photos and based on basic features of the photos determined whether the owner of the phone was female or male.

It wasn’t a new thing or anything. Wonho has used this program multiple time since he had written it, it was pretty handy especially when him and Changkyun used to do some dirty work of wiping someone’s computer or phone from afar back in the time when Wonho and I.M were only legendary names at a university campus. He just needed to adjust some parameters. Easy.

While the program was searching its way through people’s phone, his glance went back to the CCTV, the car was still there, screens shining from the inside.

A result came up on the screen, flashing that there we 22 males currently using their phones in his proximity, but only 10 on their cellular data. Wonho was happy he had inputted to scan for this parameter as well, his work was even easier now.

He found all of the unique receiving signals on the screen to his left. Sliding his hand into the Pepero box for the third time and finding only one last Pepero stick in there was so disappointing, but at least now he had a time limit, which only made him more excited.

“Okay,” Wonho cheered on himself and crack the knuckle on his thumb.

Getting into 10 phones was easy if you had the receiving signals. So Wonho went in and accessed the cellular data the phones were receiving and via that he sent an information to the phone to let him in. Once in, he went through and turned on the front camera. The first person was a young guy in front of the 24 hour café across the street - Hoseok knew him, the kid was the part timer there. The second, third and fourth were also misses. However the fifth person was sitting in a dark car. Wonho quickly took a screenshot of his face and moved onto the next phone.

Wonho was so focused on what he was doing he didn’t notice the sounds coming from the door. The sixth and seventh men were also not it.

“8th?” he stuck the tip of his tongue to his top lip and almost bit it off as he jumped up from the startle when out of nowhere a person appeared next to him.

“Hyung, what are you doing?” Changkyun asked genuinely curious and interested, checking out the stuff on the screens.

“Jesus, you scared the holy light out of me,” Hoseok tried to calm down his fast beating heart.

The front camera of the 8th’s phone popped out and it was another person in the car and from this man, he could faintly see the 5th’s face. Taking another screenshot, he noticed Changkyun rolled his chair next to Wonho’s.

“Hyung?” Changkyun tried asking again.

“In a sec,” Hoseok replied and saw Changkyun relax into the chair, knowing it was pointless to bother Hoseok when he was in his zone, in his Wonho mode.

Now that Wonho had figured out the receiving signals and had the screenshots of the men and the car, he decided it would be nice to send a fucking gift. Changkyun leaned in and fascinatingly watched his hyung work his magic.

There wasn’t really a gift that Wonho could give to people, who were following him, like… a Trojan wasn’t really enough, blowing up their phones wasn’t enough. In the end, he just had to settle for the most annoying thing he could come up with in that moment - a pop-up add of an XXX-rated website offering various kinds of service with accompanying sounds that would show up on the screen every time any of them unlocked their phones or wanted to access any app on the phone - be it contacts, games or social media. Just any fucking app.

Next to him in the chair, Changkyun chuckled when he saw the improvements on the old virus the two have created back in the day as a form of punishment for when they finished a job for someone and the person didn’t want to pay for it or was late with his payment. Back then it was only when these people wanted to open their social media or internet browser.

Just a couple of clicks on the keyboard and a content sigh left Hoseok’s lips, he stretched on the chair and smiled to himself a small yet proud smile.

“Nice twist there, hyung,” Changkyun said appreciatively of Hoseok’s thinking.

“That’ll teach them to annoy me.”

“Who?”

“The guys that have been following me for about a week,” Hoseok admitted and Changkyun presented his most shocked face.

“Have you told anyone?”

“No. At first I thought I was being paranoid. But then it happened way too many times to be an accident and today I just got the idea. I have their pictures, so I’ll hit up Minhyuk about it tomorrow,” Hoseok explained and Changkyun nodded in agreement.

“But still, you should have told me you had this on your mind, hyung,” Changkyun sounded rather worried.

“Don’t worry, Kyunnie. I got it,” Hoseok smiled at the younger hacker and stood up to go find another box of Pepero in the pantry. It wasn’t like he couldn’t deal with his problems on his own, too.

|Kihyun POV|

It wasn’t often that Kihyun joined or was joined by someone to ‘business’ meetings. He liked to keep things in his hands and control what information all the present parties left with. However, today he had taken Sera with him, sadly he had to admit it was because of the status and because the other party refused to meet with Kihyun without her. He would lie if he said he wasn’t curious about the reason for that request.

Sera sat in the passenger seat of his Aston Martin talking on the phone with Hyungwon about a shipment of medicine that she was to pick up for him later.

For a moment there, Kihyun got sentimental. He had been Sera’s older brother for more than half of his life and the only thing he had ever wanted for her (besides getting revenge, but that involved more people) was for her to actually feel happiness. Not some kind of a rush that she gets out of violence while she subconsciously sought for her conscience. And he didn’t even want to think about the one night stands, but Minhyuk gave him a pep talk multiple times to keep Sera at least a little bit busier because the guys she usually fucked (as Minhyuk found out during his ‘ _sessions_ ’ with them) were only rough with her and Minhyuk also mentioned that one guy mentioned that when she was drunk she had said that physical pain was the only way to make sure she was still alive. And Kihyun didn’t want this. She deserved better. He knew Hyungwon loved her (everyone knew) in a romantic way and that she loved him (a fairly well hidden secret) in a romantic way, but she didn’t feel worthy of any love. Kihyun wasn’t only mildly disturbed by that. He wanted her to be happy and he thought that Hyungwon could bring that happiness to her. But then again, pushing against Sera was as useful as throwing empty pea pods at a wall you wanted to demolish.

Sera hung up and sighed.

“Is that the second shipment of medicine for him?” Kihyun asked, his eyes fixed on the streets lying in front of him, the roaring engine accelerating to pass a slower driver.

“Yeah. But Hyungwon ordered something else,” Sera’s brows furrowed in a frown. “Some psychedelics and I just wonder if he’s stirring up some stuff again.”

“I’ll ask him later,” Kihyun responded but he already knew what Hyungwon wanted the psychedelics for. Earlier this week Hyungwon talked to him about mixing some of that stuff with the medicine his gave to that piece of shit, after all it was that time of the year again. Every year around this time, Hyungwon made Sera’s uncle suffer from drug induced nightmares or pains, giving him placebo pills afterwards. The death of his parents was something Hyungwon couldn’t get over. And just like all of them, the reason for Hyungwon being the way he was with poisons was none other than Ryu Sungmoon.

“Pointless. It’s that time of the year again,” Sera waved it off, knowing what was going on anyway. “I think I’m going to stay at his place for a couple of weeks, just to help him through it.”

“Like last year?”

“Yeah. But Ki,” she looked at him with an inquisitive glance. “Why the fuck am I going to this meeting of yours?”

Kihyun stopped at a red light and glanced over at his little sister. “Frankly, I don’t know. It was a condition for the meeting, so…”

“Do I have to be nice?”

“I’ll leave that up to you, sis.”

The duo walked into an old traditional and very expensive restaurant, in which Kihyun has dined a couple of times, but he didn’t enjoy the food as much. This restaurant was more to show to the people you invited that you had enough money to invite them to a place like this one. He enjoyed the ‘holes in the walls’ way more than the blatant showcase of money.

After announcing their names, the waitress led them to a private room where Mr. Shin and his son were waiting. Kihyun at first had been surprised that Mr. Shin’s son would join, after all Minhyuk said the guy was known for not caring about his father’s illegal business and just loved to party and take drugs, letting his older sister handle the family ‘business’ and thanks to her husband (whom she married really early) from their Mexican cocaine supplier she was called _La Reina_ \- the queen.

But the relationship between the Ryu family and the Shins has always been neutral. None has ever overstepped their lines and kept within their borders. _At least something that mother fucker didn’t fuck up,_ Kihyun thought to himself.

“Hello, Mr. Yoo! It is a pleasure to finally meet the head of the Ryu family,” Mr. Shin greeted him and looked over to Sera to say something to her as well but Kihyun quickly interrupted him before shaking his hand with the older man.

“Mr. Shin, pleasure is all mine, however I have to correct you in one thing. Mr. Ryu Sungmoon is the head of the Ryu family,” Kihyun smiled with his work smile at the man, offering his hand.

Shin smirked slyly and took Kihyun’s hand into his own to shake it. “Mr. Yoo, I have heard enough about your skills, but if you say it like that then I will act like I believe it.” Shin looked away from him fixing his eyes on Sera. “Ms. Ryu, what a pleasure to finally see you after hearing so much about you.”

“I know,” she replied to the greeting with her own special way. Was it rude? Yes. Was it justifiable? Also yes. Shin’s smile was as fake as the Gucci bags they sold at tourist markets. And Sera was like a sniff dog when it came to fake.

The response from Sera seemed to shock the older man for a moment but he quickly recovered and motioned for them to sit at the 2 empty spots at the opposite him and his son, who hasn’t spoken so far, but his eyes were following every single movement Sera did. Kihyun could already sense Sera’s feelings about this.

“Not that I want to be impolite Mr. Shin, but do you have a specific reason you invited us for lunch? I’m sure you very well know I have official business to take care of and we’ll have to get going very soon. I’m afraid I barely have time for coffee,” Kihyun told the man opposite him, eyeing him warily.

“Yes, yes. I understand, of course. So, I’ll get straight to it. I was looking at land expansion and I’m certain you’ve heard of how my eldest daughter found her husband and my son has recently come with the same thing… Ms. Ryu after all is in the best age to get married, now,” Shin kept on smiling slyly and Kihyun’s bile rose from his stomach, the acid taste hitting the back of his throat.

 _Does he really think that I am going to decide whom Sera marries? Or that I am going to give her an order? Is he an idiot? In the family she is considered higher in the hierarchy than me, even if it’s just one step and if I got to decide whom she marries it would be Chae Hyungwon,_ Kihyun thought. But before he managed to say anything he heard Sera next to him snicker shortly in disgust.

Sera leaned closer to the table and with a voice full of sharp edges and silent warnings she said: “I’d rather poke out his eyes and eat them than ever look into them again.” Then she stood up and didn’t spare any of them another glance as she walked out telling Kihyun: “I’ll wait by the car.”

Kihyun’s face stayed neutral throughout the whole situation and he watched both of the Shins carefully the whole time and he was incredibly disgusted by how the younger’s eyes kept following Sera even as she was leaving.

The grey eminence of the Ryu family hasn’t moved from his straight sitting position but the right corner of his lips curled up in an evil smile. “Mr. Shin,” his voice was full of malicious menace, “I’d pick your enemies wiser had I been you. Don’t play with me ever again. I know more than you think, Mr. Shin... I know your daughter is 5 months pregnant, carrying a much awaited son under her heart after many, many problems conceiving in the first place. It would be a shame if there was something to happen to a poor unborn child, wouldn’t it? I know your first wife and the mother of your children that you have divorced due to your worries for her safety because you love her beyond, your words not mine, is currently in Bahamas, enjoying the warm sun rays... Wouldn’t it be just too bad if she was never to return for your scheduled weekly Thursday night dinners? I am sure your youngest daughter would have to get over a lot of trauma if she was to discover her mother in a pool of blood, after being subjected to the Ryu ritual death sentence. I’m pretty sure you have heard of how brutal, bloody and painful it is _and_ I am most certain, you have done some research on me and know that _your_ loved ones wouldn’t be the first _or_ the last that have experienced my ways.”

While Kihyun was talking, Mr. Shin’s sly poker face disappeared and it its lieu a worried frown was sitting now. All of this information was highly protected by the Shins, but Kihyun had Minhyuk as his brother and Minhyuk just simply knew everything.

One thing about Kihyun was that he wasn’t afraid of hurting anyone, he didn’t like direct contact... no, he liked hurting people through their loved ones. After all, he had learned that from the one man he despised the most. While Sera was called 'the little psycho' for how she was on the outside... she was only a lost soul, a damaged child, who deeply wished to regain the conscience she was forced to leave behind. But Kihyun was the type of 'little psycho' you would only discover once the damage was done. He was a thinker, a planner, the quiet type, the calm waters on the surface that mill and shape the earth with a strong current down below. He was dangerous. After all Shin wouldn’t be the first one Kihyun would destroy like this… it was interesting, though that Shin hadn’t heard of the ones before him. Or maybe he had?

“Mr. Yoo, I’m afraid you’re a psychopath,” Shin said in a quiet, yet respect showing voice. _So he knows of the ones before him. Good…_

Kihyun stood up from the chair, the evil smirk never leaving his face as he looked down on Shin. “What harsh words you use, Mr. Shin. I would call myself simply: an _ambitious_ man, who always achieves his goals.”

With that Kihyun walked out of the private room and headed to his car.

_Another pawn was just moved. Now I can start playing with the queen._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoseok made an important decision and Kihyun uncovered his psycho side - what do you think of this? Have you noticed the 'Wonho mode'? What about the people that are watching Hoseok- who could they be? What do they want?
> 
> Please share whatever thoughts and opinions you have with me in the comments and please leave a kudo <3 if you like the story (if you haven't yet ^^). <3 <3
> 
> Really hope you enjoyed reading the chapter and hopefully we'll see each other in the next one ^^ Stay safe and take care! o(*￣︶￣*)o bye bye


	8. The Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyungwon goes through another painful anniversary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back to Little Psycho. I hope you enjoy this chapter ^^

|Hyungwon POV|

Hyungwon was beat. It’s been a long week and he just finished sorting through the medicine shipment Sera had just dropped in. It took him excruciating 3 hours to sort through of what was for the family, what were actual medicines he was willing to give to Ryu Sungmoon, what were placebo pills and vitamins and what he got to ‘play with’ (please read ‘poison’). After all of that was done, he packed a box and loaded it into the trunk of his car to take it home with him.

Leaving his private practice office, where he treated maximum of 2 patients a day, many days he had none, the whole practice being a pretense he got from Ryu Sungmoon to get his attestations and to be ‘legit’ and it was all paid for by him. Everything, of course, including Hyungwon’s very high rates, he also never did pro-bono cases - never seemed to care for human life enough outside the family.

On his way home, Hyungwon stopped by the store to pick up his order that he got shipped from Japan, just like every year for the last 6 years. He didn’t mind the steeper price since he’s only done it once a year, plus he had enough money to spend. And what else was money for, right?

It was around 6PM when Hyungwon finally got home, turning his phone into silent mode even though he knew Sera should be calling him in a bit that she got home. It would ring out and she’d be okay with that. Hyungwon changed his clothes from his dark navy blue slim fit slacks and white long sleeve t-shirt into his sweats and hoodie and headed to the coffee table where he put his package.

Hyungwon opened the box and took out a bottle of Yamazaki 12 Year Old Whisky, the same thing his father used to enjoy drinking. Of course his father used to drink it sparingly, maximum two small glasses per week. Sometimes he wouldn’t drink for months. When Hyungwon was younger his father would say, he would pour himself a small glass after a bad day to wash out the foul taste in his mouth. Hyungwon very well remembered his father never ever got drunk.

This was the time of the year Hyungwon got sentimental, always the two weeks around his father’s death anniversary were the hardest or him to handle. Somehow his mother’s death anniversary never bothered him as much because he knew she was in a better place, in a place without pain where she wouldn’t be ill anymore. Her battle with cancer started shortly after Hyungwon was born and due to many treatments and stays in the hospital Hyungwon didn’t get to see his mom as much. Not that he didn’t love her, he did and very much at that, but he got more attached to his father. When Hyungwon was 13, his mother lost her battle with cancer. After that his father started to stay at home more, worried that Hyungwon would go through a ‘phase’ and this almost non-availability of Hyungwon’s father, who was Ryu Sungmoon’s personal doctor, didn’t appeal to the said patient. That sick bastard didn’t like that Dr. Chae wasn’t on his beck and call anymore and he decided (literally on a whim) that people like this were disposable and can be easily replaced. So Hyungwon’s father was called in one night and he never came back. Hyungwon was 14 and didn’t even get to say goodbye. Hyungwon then decided to pursue medicine and stay ‘loyal’ to Ryu Sungmoon with the plan of poisoning the man slowly and to bring him death painfully just to see the sick bastard’s life wither away under his hands. One day, first day actually, at the school he was transferred to by Ryu Sungmoon, he met Kihyun, Sera, Minhyuk and Hyunwoo. Of course he had heard of Sera before from his father, who would always say how he felt so bad for the girl, how he pitied her that she didn’t die along with her parents, that always when he had met her he needed to clean a festering wound, re-break a non-treated broken bone just so that it sat properly, or had to stitch up half of her body. After every encounter, he would tell Hyungwon that she would have been much better off had she died that awful night, too. However, when Hyungwon saw her for the first time, he thanked God she didn’t die, because she became his light at the end of the tunnel, along with Kihyun, Minhyuk and Hyunwoo. And after hearing all of the stories of the others, which was before Hyungwon went to university at the age of 16 (thanks to his high intellect), he lost all kinds respect for human life and again, he thought of that a special spot was held for him in hell when he was ‘making the promise’ to never harm and only cure the ill with the knowledge he had learned at school. But he didn’t care, because when, at 15, he expressed it (the spot in hell matter) for the first time in front of Sera, she said that he didn’t need to worry because she would be there right beside him, enjoying their awful eternal punishement together. And that was when he confessed his love to her and she told him that monsters like her didn’t deserve to be loved.

Hyungwon picked up one of the bohemian crystal whiskey glasses that his father used to drink from and poured himself the first small glass and raised his hand towards the ceiling with a heavy sigh. “To you, dad. I know I’m not like you imagined me to be, but I live by mom’s wish and keep being myself in every situation.” Hyungwon said the same words every year. “I miss you dad.” He chucked the first glass in one go right there by the bar, then he moved to the couch pouring himself another one, which was downed rather quickly too. The third he already started to rock the amber liquid around the glass, enjoying the drink itself.

By the time Hyungwon was pouring his fourth he heard the door to his rather big apartment open and close. Only Sera and Minhyuk knew the code to his lock and Hyungwon knew Minhyuk was working, since the older even offered that Hyungwon could come to his bar.

Hyungwon turned his head to the entrance to the living room and there was Sera in all her 5’2” glory and with a bag on her shoulder that she just in that moment dropped by the door. “I thought you quit.”

Hyungwon followed her gaze to the bottle on the table. “I always pick it back up this time of the year,” he shrugged it off knowing that she knew. And that made everything all the more worth it - that she was there and she knew everything.

She silently walked over to Hyungwon and for the first time in a year kissed his cheek. It was soft and caring. Both kept silent when she went to get herself a glass, identical to the one Hyungwon was holding and poured herself a glass of the amber colored alcohol.

She settled next to Hyungwon leaning against his shoulder, clinking their glasses together and then raised her hand towards the ceiling ever so slightly. “Thank you for Hyungwon, doctor.” She took as sip of the whiskey and turned her gaze to Hyungwon.

“You know, you don’t have to be here. I’m not going to make another batch for him this year,” Hyungwon told her rather coldly, but Sera knew that he didn’t mean it like that. Hyungwon might have looked like an iceberg to people, but he was only like this now.

“I’m not here because I’m afraid you’ll play with poison, Wonnie,” she stared deeply into Hyungwon’s eyes and he could read in between the lines. _One day_ , Hyungwon told himself. “I’m here because you’re here.”

Hyungwon smiled a small smile and his eyes turned softer, he raised his hand and stroked Sera’s hair lovingly. “I’ll go get a room ready for you.”

He was about to stand up when Sera held him back and stood up herself. “I know where the beddings are, I can make my own bed. I know your place just as well as mine.”

“Make yourself at home then,” Hyungwon chuckled and sipped on his whiskey.

“I don’t need to make myself at home. I am home,” and with that she walked out of the living room. Hyungwon sighed when she left, but it was no longer the heavy-angry-full-of-hate sigh, but a softer, much more content sigh.

The two didn’t drink much after that, just a glass each but they talked for a very long time before both were tired enough to go to bed. Deciding it was for the best they separated into the two rooms with their own en-suite bathrooms.

Hyungwon didn’t notice until he exited his bathroom with clean teeth and finished skin care that his bed now had 2 pillows and 2 duvets. He looked confusingly at his bed for about 15 seconds, his tipsy brain not really processing all that well, before the door opened and Sera softly padded over to Hyungwon, kissing him on the very corner of his lips softly before she went to his bed and laid on the side with the clean beddings. She never said a word of explanation.

Hyungwon walked slowly over to the bed and shuffled under his own duvet, what he didn’t expect was that Sera would slide over out of her duvet and under his, hugging Hyungwon and putting her head onto his chest, just above his heart. Hyungwon’s hand snaked around her, holding her even closer.

And they fell asleep like that, without a word spoken.

|Changkyun POV|

Changkyun couldn’t fucking believe his eyes. How did he get a D from programming?

_What the actual fuck!_

He was mad, oh, he was so fucking mad!

The program he submitted was flawless, it was fucking perfect, he ran it multiple times and it was the cleanest fucking app launcher he had ever fucking made. No fucking bugs, no nonsensical attributes that didn’t need to be there, no fucking slow loading. No fucking nothing. It was fucking spotless.

So why the fuck did he get a D?

_Why and how, for fuck’s sake?!_

Changkyun was mad 100. Like mad fucking _beyond_. And he needed to get shit out of his system. Fast. He took the subway heading towards the city center, towards his first stop of the day - Minhyuk’s bar.

 _Fuck all of the late afternoon classes. Fuck everything,_ Changkyun could not stop swearing in his head.

He arrived at the bar about half hour before the bar opened at 5, walking in straight through the door. The guard that usually stood there at that time was on his way to the door. The guard noticed Changkyun and made his steps towards him faster. “Sir, it’s not opened yet. I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

Changkyun had never seen this guard, but he only internally shrugged it off with the thought the guy might be new. But then again, Changkyun was just so freaking _done_ today, so he just raised one brow, the one with the piercing, and asked the guard annoyed beyond: “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Sir, please would you mind refraining from using profanity?” The guard stepped closer to the young hacker as if he was trying to intimidate Changkyun. But Im Changkyun had had just about enough of people’s stupidity.

“Yes, I would _fucking_ mind,” he raised his voice significantly at the guard.

That has brought the attention of Hoseok and Minhyuk, who were sitting their backs to the entrance studying something laid out on the bar. Both turned around to see what the reason for the commotion was.

When Hoseok noticed Changkyun, he called out to him in a mocking tone: “What happened? Did you get a B?”

The guard turned around to the bar and Changkyun slipped past him unbothered and with an utterly frustrated groan. “I got a D,” he said as he approached them, the volume of his voice went significantly down.

“That wouldn’t be the first one,” Minhyuk smirked as he looked over at the papers on the bar again.

“Hyuuuuung,” Changkyun let out in frustration when Hoseok started laughing. Changkyun walked over to the bar and sat on the stool next to Hoseok, obviously still fuming.

“What? Wanna deny that claim, Kyunnie?” Minhyuk winked at him and then grabbed a picture of a man that Changkyun saw Hoseok screenshot the previous night.

“Hoseok hyung, the app was fucking perfect. You’ve seen it. I just don’t fucking understand how I got a D…” the frustration just would not leave the youngest member of the family.

Just as well as teasing mood was not leaving Minhyuk. “Um, with that ass you could get any D you want,” Minhyuk’s eyes never left the photos on the bar, he just kept studying them, searching for details.

Changkyun rolled his eyes so loudly, that probably even Marie Therese could smell it. “Hyung, will you stop please?”

“Stop with what?” Sera’s voice came from behind them. Changkyun turned around to see his older sister, as always dressed in all black, making her way to the coffee machine.

“Changkyun got a D,” Minhyuk answered before Changkyun could even open his mouth.

“And what’s new?” she shrugged and Changkyun let out a groan so loud the three waiters turned around from the back of the bar where they were setting up a special table.

“Noonaaaaa!”

Sera just laughed it off. “Kyunnie, that happens. Some days you just get a bad D.”

“You could talk about bad Ds,” Minhyuk said to Sera with a smug smirk.

“How much do you want to strangle him?” Sera eyes shifted and landed on Changkyun, her smile now sickly sweet - the evil kind of sweet.

“A lot!” Changkyun exclaimed in relief. “Stop laughing, hyung. It’s not even that funny.”

“Sorry, it’s funny,” Hoseok didn’t let Changkyun destroy his fun. “You have to admit that it’s at least a little bit funny.”

All the eyes turned to Changkyun. “It’s not fun-… okay, yeah, it’s a little funny,” Changkyun finally yielded.

“You love me,” Minhyuk turned his body towards Sera as she came close, with her coffee in her hand and he kissed her on the cheek.

Sera smiled as an answer and took a photo into her hand scanning over the face of the man in it. “These guys have been following you?” she asked Hoseok, all jokes aside.

“Yeah. Maybe not always these two, but they’re the ones I got faces of. Do you know any of them?” Hoseok questioned Sera, picking up a cigarette that lay without fire on the edge of the ash tray. He picked up Minhyuk’s lighter and lit up the cigarette, taking a drag and pushing the box towards Changkyun, who has immediately pulled out one for himself and lit it up the same way Hoseok did. After all, he learned how to smoke from him, even though the older scolded him so much when he found out Changkyun picked up smoking. However, the youngest pulled the argument ‘if you can, I can’ and Hoseok just simply couldn’t do anything about that logic, really.

Sera focused her eyes on the picture. “No. But I know her,” the tapped her finger on the person behind one man on the picture that Hoseok had completely looked over. He ran his eyes over the blurry image of a body without a face.

“Who is it?” Changkyun asked curious, also staring at the picture.

“It’s Ming’s only daughter. See here,” she pointed to a black line that went down the neck and across the collar bone to the heart of the woman in the picture. “Only one person in our world has this tattoo - Ming Wenran.”

Minhyuk hummed in acknowledgment. “She’s known for being a daddy’s little girl. She gets everything she wants. Literally. And she is very, _very_ protected by Ming Zhan, he only puts the best bodyguards in her proximity. Better than on his own person or his wife. I can only wonder what she had been doing around our safe house.” Minhyuk bit his lip thinking. The quartet was silent, everyone’s thoughts milling around as Minhyuk continued to chew on his bottom lip. “I’ll hit up some people I know and ask. But Hoseok, if I were you, I’d be way more careful than you have been up to this point. If you get entangled with Ming Wenran, only God will be able to help you.”

“Or Satan,” Sera pointed out in a lighter town with made Minhyuk snicker. “Who in this case is me.” Hoseok nodded with wide eyes. He really thought he was only being paranoid when he thought someone was following him. “But for the time being, you will move to my flat. Tonight. Hyunwoo will pick up your work stuff and even Jooheon will get you out from here safely.” Sera pulled out her phone but before she made the call she looked at Changkyun.

But the moment she was going to say something to Changkyun, Hoseok gave her a puzzled glance. “And where will you sleep?”

“I’m staying at Hyungwon’s now,” she replied nonchalantly. Both of the hackers gave their sister a wide eyed look and Minhyuk sighed.

“It’s that time again, eh?” his eyes softened.

Sera nodded and switched her gaze back to Changkyun. “You can’t go back to your place now either. We’ll get you both a new safe house, so just find a place to stay for a couple of nights until Kihyun gets you a new place.”

“Okay,” Changkyun agreed already considering his options of where he could stay for a couple of nights and Jooheon’s place came to his mind, thinking about how they agreed to have a revenge tournament in Street Fighter.

“You can always stay at Kihyun’s,” Sera suggested with a raised brow and a grin on her lips.

Minhyuk spit out a short laughter, Hoseok following his suit, clearly sharing one brain cell at the moment but before Changkyun stopped himself that stupid word left his mouth: “What?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Minhyuk waved it off, obviously trying to compose himself only to grin like a Cheshire cat. “I just thought that you won’t only be getting one D tonight, then.”

Hoseok burst out laughing along with Sera, who was already walking away with her phone at her ear. “Hyuuung,” Changkyun groaned again in utter frustration, disbelief at Minhyuk’s inability to let it slide flooding through him. Both of his hyungs kept on chuckling as they packed the papers on the table when Minhyuk checked his watch that showed it was time to open the bar.

|Kihyun POV|

Kihyun has had a rough day of running the CEO official business so he was in no mood to pick up Minhyuk’s call when he was standing at a rather long red light, looking forward to just coming home and cooking himself something nice for dinner.

“Minhyuk, what’s up?” Kihyun pinched the bridge of his nose sighing inaudibly.

“ _Changkyun needs a place to stay tonight. Hoseok is going to stay at Sera’s for a couple of nights as they need a new place_ ,” Minhyuk announced in a monotone voice through the connection and Kihyun’s mind whipped up alertly.

“What? Why?”

“ _Hoseok was being followed for the last week and last night he found out by whom. Sera’s already talked with Hyunwoo and Jooheon to take the guys’ working stuff out of the apartment. It’s just that Changkyun doesn’t have a place to stay for a couple of nights_ ,” Minhyuk explained, his voice remained the same.

“He was followed by whom?” Kihyun pressed to get an answer for his question.

“ _We didn’t know the guys at first, I couldn’t place them at all, but when Sera came in she recognized Ming Wenran in the back of the picture_ ,” Minhyuk said, ending on a heavy, almost bored sigh.

“Ming Wenran?” The green light shined from the traffic light and Kihyun surged forward, planning to change his direction on the next turn towards Minhyuk’s bar.

“ _You heard me, why are you asking again?_ ” Minhyuk let out, annoyed. “ _Come pick up the poor kid, who is clearly upset about only getting one D today so far._ ”

Kihyun’s brows furrowed in a confused frown as he made an unallowed u-turn on the closest left turn, he licked his lips thinking about what Minhyuk just said and then he remembered that Changkyun was supposed to get the grade for a launcher app he handed in last week. “Oh, he got a D?”

“ _Yeah, he’s pretty frustrated with this one. But maybe he’ll feel better if you give him another one?_ ” Minhyuk suggested and Kihyun recognized the mischievous teasing tone of Lee Minhyuk and yet he couldn’t help but smirk.

“You know what, Min?”

“ _Sadly,_ _I can’t read thoughts over the phone ,yet, so enlighten me_.”

“I think you’re just jealous that Changkyun has gotten laid more than you did in the last 2 weeks,” he chuckled thinking he would throw Min off just a little bit.

“ _You don’t know what I’ve been up to, Kihyunnie. Just come pick him up, okay._ ” And with that Minhyuk hung up and no more than 10 minutes later Kihyun parked on his spot outside Minhyuk’s bar noticing that Sera must have already gone back to Hyungwon’s place since her car was no longer present in front of Minhyuk’s bar. These were bad times for Hyungwon and Kihyun was happy that Sera was there for him these days.

Kihyun walked up to the bar entrance, some young women that were waiting to get in gave him appreciative stares and Kihyun didn’t forget to smile with just a slight hint of cockiness at them. He knew it made him look sexy and by the shy giggles the women sent his way, he was very right. Kihyun also knew he looked really good in the grey, well fitted suit with a black shirt underneath. There was a new guard at the door, who seemed a little flustered by Kihyun and the way he approached the bar as if he owned it but at the moment the guard wanted to say something to him an older guard appeared with the most welcoming smile the big man could gather.

“Mr. Yoo, good evening,” the older guard opened the door for him, Kihyun walked through with a mere nod and before the door closed Kihyun heard him tell the new guard: “I told you to look at the fucking photos, you idiot. You’ve done this once today already. Do you wanna-“

Kihyun smirked at the chastising and confidently walked over to the bar, where the head bartender noticed him and greeted him with a polite bow. “Good evening. Mr. Lee is in his office along with both Mr. Son and Mr. Im.”

“Thank you,” Kihyun responded to the information and headed towards Minhyuk’s office. He opened the door without knocking and found Hyunwoo sitting in Minhyuk’s chair with his feet on the desk, Minhyuk perched on the desk facing the oldest and with a hand on his upper thigh. Changkyun was sitting on the small couch doing something on his computer with his headphones on. When he noticed Kihyun walking in, Changkyun took his headphones off and smiled at Kihyun.

“Hey,” Kihyun greeted everyone with a sigh, plopping himself next to Changkyun, crossing one leg over the other gracefully.

“Ki, we have to talk about Ming Wenran,” Hyunwoo addressed the topic at hand right away.

“What do you suggest, hyung?” Kihyun asked the oldest.

“Sera’s flat might be safe for Hoseok for a couple of days but he will need to move around somehow and he still wants to go to his lectures, he wants to finish his degree this year after all. So first of all, he needs a car,” Hyunwoo started. Kihyun nodded along with everything his hyung and the head of security had said so far. “I’ll talk to Jooheon about getting him something common, something that he can disappear in.”

“Okay, yeah, I agree. I wanted to suggest the same thing, too. Ming Wenran is not someone we should play cat and mouse with,” Kihyun ran a hand through his hair and felt Changkyun’s gaze on him. “We need to get Hoseok to safety and I’ll make sure to take a look around with Sera about what that brat might want with Hoseok.”

“Well, I for one,” Minhyuk theatrically rolled clicked his tongue, “would totally only take Hoseok for his body. So I wouldn’t be surprised if she was after that ‘urgh’,” he ‘pronounced’ the last word with such emphasis that even Saint Mary would understand what they meant.

“You know I usually don’t completely agree with Minhyuk on this stuff, but…” Hyunwoo shrugged suggestively and Kihyun nodded again.

“It’s a possibility. Where is Hoseok now?” Kihyun questioned.

“Jooheon hyung took him to Sera’s place and will go to pick up his computers and our hard drives,” Changkyun replied.

“I’ll pick up Kyun’s stuff tomorrow morning,” Hyunwoo said and put a hand onto Minhyuk’s to stop the motions that Minhyuk had now been making up and down his thigh.

“Okay, then. Let’s talk more about it tomorrow. I’ll give the situation some more thought too. Come to my office, in the afternoon. Preferably with Sera, but if she stays behind with Hyungwon we can just talk to her on the phone,” Kihyun stood up from the couch and Changkyun started to pack his stuff.

The two told their goodbyes to the two older brothers and walked out of the office, leaving whatever business the two had for them to solve in privacy.

When Changkyun sat in the passenger seat of Kihyun’s Aston Martin, he gave Kihyun a curious look. “Hyung, have the two ever…?”

“They have. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what’s going on. Both have things that frustrate them. But then again, Minhyuk is just a very affectionate person. It’s just his way of communicating feelings. You must have noticed that the only person he ever vocally expresses his care for is Sera. And Minhyuk told me you already know why, so…”

“Yeah, I know,” Changkyun’s voice saddened at the memory of Minhyuk’s little sister’s story.

The rest of the car ride was silent and Kihyun was actually kind of grateful for that because it gave him the time he needed to process the information that had been vomited on him in the past hour. Of course, he didn’t like the Ming Wenran turnout of events thing, but maybe he could use it to his advantage, but he would have to find a way to get Hoseok to consent to that possible plan. But then there’s the whole rest of the family that would strongly protest even if he managed to convince Hoseok into the plan.

That was definitely a thought worth revisiting and Kihyun stored it into a safe drawer in his mind, considering more options of how to deal with this unexpected mess.

Kihyun parked in the garage of his building mindlessly, his thoughts lost in the process of coming up with things that he completely forgot about Changkyun even though he was standing right there next to him in the elevator on his way up to his penthouse.

Kihyun literally jumped up when Changkyun spoke for the first time after a while. “Thanks for letting me stay, hyung.”

“Of course. I told you - anything you need,” Kihyun smiled at him as he took of his shoes and placed them neatly back into their spot on the shelf. “Hungry?”

“A little bit, yeah,” Changkyun followed Kihyun to the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar watching Kihyun wash his hands and start pulling out ingredients from the fridge and the cupboards.

Kihyun felt the younger’s eyes on him, just like that Sunday when he was making them late breakfast after a rather busy night. Kihyun was happy he was standing his back to Changkyun as he smiled at the memory.

“How long do you think it will take? The food, I mean?” Changkyun asked.

“Hmm, maybe 30 minutes,” Kihyun answered.

“Would you mind if I go take a shower? It’s been a long day.”

“No. No. Go ahead, of course.”

Changkyun left the kitchen but since Kihyun was cutting up some veggies he didn’t notice the younger one went to the guest room instead of his room to settle down. So a wave of disappointment ran through him when he faintly heard the water flow from the guest room bathroom.

“Have I said anything?” Kihyun murmured to himself as he continued preparing their dinner.

When the dinner was ready, Kihyun called Changkyun over from the dining table where the younger has set up his laptop to get something done, to the breakfast bar, which was the place where Kihyun usually ate at anyway, never wanting to carry the dishes all the way to the dining room, especially since he ate alone most of the time anyway.

The kitchen was silent, Kihyun took a good look at Changkyun and noticed that something was bothering him. “Kyun, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”

Changkyun sighed heavily, playing with the food a bit before picking up a piece of salmon with his chopsticks. “I got a shit grade from the app launcher I programmed. I worked really hard on it, since it was kind of a test run for one thing that hyung and I are planning and I got a fucking D from it. I seriously don’t understand it in the very least.” Changkyun sighed again and Kihyun’s only thoughts were about how hot he looked when he was frustrated and deep in thought. “And on top of that Minhyuk hyung kept making fun of me for getting the grade, but I’m sure you’ve heard all about that.”

Kihyun smirked and set his chopsticks on the table after he finished the last bite of his food. “Listen, Kyun. Grades are not everything. You’re smart and you work hard. Someone just didn’t get it and that’s it.” With the last word he put his hand in the middle of Changkyun thigh and he felt the younger stiffen under the touch.

“Hyung. That shit doesn’t bother me all that much,” he said, turning his body towards Kihyun.”

“So what bothers you?” Kihyun leaned closer, their faces about 10 inches apart.

“The fact that Minhyuk hyung was fucking right the whole time he was making fun of me. I really didn’t want _that_ D.”

Kihyun leaned in and crashed his lips to Changkyun’s, pulling at the back of his neck, making the younger’s body slide down the high chair and to stand between his legs as Kihyun continued to sit on the stool, never breaking the kiss. Kihyun’s other hand settled on the curve where Changkyun’s back met his ass as he held him close to his hips.

Kihyun would lie if he said that after that Monday morning last week when Changkyun left his apartment he never thought of having him like this again. Of course, he often thought of Changkyun but that was usually as an older brother would think of his younger sibling in a caring manner and also when he was thinking of his plan.

But only when he laid in his empty bed at night, he allowed his mind to wander to all the things he would do to him if he got him back in his apartment, about all the places and positions, about the sweet, sweet sounds Changkyun made when Kihyun pushed the right buttons. Those nights, sleep didn’t come easily to Yoo Kihyun. And after that small confession that happened thanks to Minhyuk’s jokes, Kihyun now knew that he was also allowed to make it more than a one night (weekend) stand thing.

Kihyun deepened the kiss and Changkyun responded with fervor, his hand sliding up Kihyun’s thigh, resting gently on his inner thigh just half an inch from where Kihyun’s pants felt a little too thigh due to the growing bulge.

Changkyun broke the kiss but before Kihyun could argue, he attached his lips below Kihyun’s ear and sucked and nibbled gently, winning himself a satisfied and lustful moan from the older’s lips. Changkyun knew all too well that it was Kihyun’s soft spot. And Kihyun knew that if it was Changkyun that would keep kissing him there, he would maybe even come just from that.

Kihyun broke away from the pleasure Changkyun was giving him, a voice in him screamed at that but Kihyun ignored it as he dipped his head to the point where Changkyun’s neck met his shoulder and sucked hard at the spot with the intention to mark the younger. Changkyun was his and that was how things were going to go from now on. Despite the rougher treatment with his skin, Changkyun moaned in pleasure and his hand started to frantically battle with pulling Kihyun black button down shirt out from his pants.

When Changkyun succeeded his hands went straight under the shirt. One went up to play with Kihyun’s nipple, the other snaked to the small of his back pulling him impossibly closer to his body. The contact of Changkyun’s fingers and Kihyun’s sensitive nipple brought out a beautiful groan out of Kihyun as he was forced to separate from Changkyun’s neck.

“Hyung,” Changkyun said completely breathless as Kihyun’s hands started to untie the borrowed sweats. When the waist band was loose, Kihyun hand went straight inside Changkyun’s underwear giving his throbbing erection a much needed stroke.

Changkyun moaned into Kihyun’s lips as they have connected again into a heated and thirsty kiss. Kihyun licked into Changkyun’s mouth, his tongue swirling around Changkyun’s all the while his hand worked gentle wonders with Changkyun’s length in his pants.

“Hyung,” the younger tried again when Kihyun broke the kiss for a breather.

“Hm?” Kihyun nibbled lightly on Changkyun’s earlobe, earning a needy whimper from him.

“I really fucking want you,” Changkyun said without any restrictions.

“Here?” Kihyun whispered into his ear, his voice as clouded with lust as Changkyun’s own.

“Oh yes,” Changkyun moaned when Kihyun squeezed a little bit and his thumb stroked over the very sensitive spot under the head of his cock. Changkyun’s hand suddenly left Kihyun’s now probably abused nipple and he reached for something into the pocket of his sweats. To Kihyun’s surprise it was a small bottle of lube.

Kihyun pushed Changkyun slightly backwards and slipped off the barstool. “Here, huh?” he asked just to make sure Changkyun really wanted it this way.

“Yes,” Changkyun repeated his answer as he got his hands to work on the buttons of Kihyun’s shirt. He was desperate to see Kihyun’s body. When the shirt was opened he pushed it off of Kihyun’s shoulders, letting it pool around their feet on the ground.

Kihyun took the bottle of lube out of Changkyun’s hand, leaving Changkyun’s pulsing length alone, which he totally wanted to protest against but kept quiet and rather quickly unbelted and opened Kihyun’s suit pants, giving his hard member the much deserved attention.

Changkyun watched Kihyun’s head throw back in a silent moan as he began to stroke Kihyun eagerly with faster but well timed out strokes. And suddenly Kihyun couldn’t be fast enough. He took Changkyun’s hand out of his pants and turned him around.

“Take hold of the counter,” Kihyun told him and Changkyun did just that, which made him bend over in a 45 degree angle. Kihyun pulled down Changkyun’s pants along with his boxers, leaving them to hang on his mid thighs.

Changkyun heard the tell tale bottle cap opening and a moment later that was a little cold and slick finger circling his entrance and then the gasp that Kihyun made when his finger rather easily slipped in was so fucking worth it to Changkyun.

“Did you…?” Kihyun voiced his thoughts with a husky voice.

“Yeah, in the shower,” Changkyun answered suggestively moving his hips to meet Kihyun’s finger.

With this knowledge Kihyun didn’t hesitate to try if Changkyun was telling the truth, pushing 2 fingers in right away. It was a risky move, he could have hurt the younger, but his lust filled mind over took all of the rational parts. Thankfully, Changkyun wasn’t bluffing, his entrance really took Kihyun’s 2 and then 3 fingers well as the pushed them in and out, eliciting amazing moans from Changkyun.

Changkyun whimpered at the loss of pressure from behind when Kihyun took his fingers out. Kihyun reached into his boxers, never even bothering to properly pushing them down, never giving a shit about the expensive suit pants he was about to ruin, because the only thing that mattered to him right now was Changkyun.

He put some lube into his hand and spread in over his length. And without asking anymore questions, he positioned himself at Changkyun’s rim and started to push in, slowly at first, cautious about hurting the younger. But when Changkyun pushed his hips towards Kihyun’s all of his resolve crumbled and he bottomed out grunting, with one stronger push drawing another explicitly beautiful and long moan from the boy.

Kihyun couldn’t wait and knowing Changkyun from almost 2 weeks ago, he knew the younger didn’t need much time to adjust anyway. He pulled out so that only the head remained in and then strongly pushed back in all the way, hitting Changkyun’s prostate in the process. One of Kihyun’s hands rested on Kyun’s hips holding him in place gently, while the other went to the back of his neck.

It looked like a dirty kitchen quickie, but for both of them it was much more. The kitchen was filled with lustful moans of something way more… wanting, craving, desiring… more, more, more…

With Kihyun’s fast pace and Changkyun ever so hot body and hearty sounds, Kihyun felt himself inch closer to his orgasm faster than he normally would. So he removed the hand from the younger’s hip and leaned closer to Changkyun’s back, his hand reaching his pre-cum leaking cock, stroking it with the most precision. Changkyun mouth fell open in a silent scream as he pushed his hips against Kihyun’s responding to the pushes the older had been giving him. Kihyun’s bare chest brushed against Changkyun’s t shirt, making his over sensitive nipples respond to everything.

Kihyun moaned louder and pushed in harder and that threw Changkyun over the edge, groaning out Kihyun’s name as his cum spurted over Kihyun’s hand, the kitchen cabinets and on the floor.

The pulsation of Changkyun’s muscles triggered Kihyun’s orgasm as his hips stuttered and he came inside Changkyun leaning his chest even more against the younger’s back. He took a couple of deep breaths before he pulled himself out of Changkyun, leaving a small streak of cum behind. His eyes lingered for a moment longer to see his cum leak out of Changkyun. Just the sight alone almost made Kihyun hard again.

Changkyun was breathing heavily when he turned around and pulled his sweats back up. His face was as blissed out as Kihyun’s and he kissed him softly on his lips, wrapping his hands around Kihyun’ torso in a loving manner.

“Let’s take a shower, hyung,” Changkyun suggested and Kihyun nodded in agreement tucking himself in before following the younger to the bathroom.

|Changkyun POV|

Changkyun’s phone rang entirely too early. Instinctively he stuck his hand under the pillow his head was resting on. He sleepily picked up noticing Minhyuk’s name on the screen at 5:15AM. “Hn?”

“ _So… did you get the D?_ ” Minhyuk’s ever so happy voice sounded from the other side of the line and it took Changkyun a short moment to realize what his hyung was even talking about.

“Hyung, I thought you called because you needed something,” Changkyun accused him with annoyance. It was way too early.

“ _Yeah_ ,” he said in a cheerful manner with assurance in his voice that he indeed wanted something important. “ _Did you get the D?_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it - the promised ChangKi explicit content. What do you think of it? What are your thoughts on the revelation of Hyungwon's story? Aren't you just happy he didn't have to go through it alone. Sera identified the people following Hoseok and it resonates with a familiar name - what is this about? What could Wenran possibly want with Hoseok? And of course... Minhyuk.... Minhyuk was the cherry on top in this chapter, wasn't he? ^^
> 
> Please share whatever thoughts and opinions you have with me in the comments and please leave a kudo <3 if you like the story (if you haven't yet ^^). <3 <3
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and hopefully we'll see each other in the next one ^^ Stay safe! (～￣▽￣)～ bye bye


	9. The Brat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minhyuk finds out what Ming Wenran, the spoiled brat, wants with Hoseokie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hello, welcome back! ^^ I hope you enjoy the new chapter <3

|Minhyuk POV|

Minhyuk’s mornings were usually incredibly uneventful as he usually slept about 3 hours due to his nightmare induced insomnia. He’s been having nightmares ever since his little sister got kidnapped and they never left. They were scarcer these last couple of years, compared to the first 2 years after little Minyoung died, but the sleepless nights stayed. These days there were other things that haunted Minhyuk at night, however that was a story for another day.

His sleeping pattern was that he fell into shallow sleep at around 2AM when he came back from the bar and woke up more or less rested at 5AM. He used to be a little cranky due to his lack of sleep, but he got over it quickly and balanced out all the negative energy with his happy attitude. People liked him more and opened up to him quicker, which is exactly what he needed.

Minhyuk liked getting up at 5AM when the city was just before waking up. The view from his apartment offered him either the city in the dark during winter or the sunrise in the summer. There were days in late fall or early summer when Minhyuk would sit with his coffee at the window and watch the sunrise, staring wide-eyed at the beautiful red sky and reminded himself that one day the sunrise will be tainted by the blood of that monster. That was a moment he always found himself at peace - when he thought of the day when the goal the family has set out for themselves actually happened. People his age would condemn Minhyuk for such thoughts and behavior but he couldn’t care less about what people thought.

Today was another one of those when Minhyuk just about managed to finish his drip coffee when the sun was about to rise. But then his phone rang… at not even half past 5 in the morning.

“Who’s even up this early?” Minhyuk mumbled to himself as he went to grab the phone into the living room, cup of coffee in one hand and toast with butter and honey in the other. The screen was lit with Sera’s name. Minhyuk smiled softly and picked up. “Good morning.”

“ _Hi. Min, can I ask you about someone_?” Sera questioned through the phone.

“Of course, but you never ask beforehand. Is everything okay?” Minhyuk was suddenly worried.

“ _Yeah, just wondering…. do you know some Professor Andrew G. Malkin from the Department of Psychology from Stanford University_?” her voice sounded rather curious.

“No. Should I know him?” Minhyuk lied. He knew of Hyungwon’s attempts of trying to find out whether Sera’s loss of conscience was something fixable or not. But he promised his younger brother he would never say anything about that.

“ _Because Hyungwon got quite the envelope from him and he was reading the papers last night. I noticed some words on it. Most were saying something about traumatic violent tendencies or something like that. And when he noticed I’ve seen something he hid the papers,_ _but when I was making myself coffee now I noticed the envelope in the paper trash. As I said, just wondering if you knew something._ ”

“Sorry, lil’ sis. I don’t know him, but I can look into him,” Minhyuk fake promised. He hated lying to the most important girl in his life, but there was no way he was going to betray Hyungwon’s trust.

“ _No. Don’t worry about it. Did you manage to dig something out about Wenran_?”

“I asked around and a girl I know offered something in return for a favor… so, I’m meeting her today,” Minhyuk replied, biting his toast and sighing contently when the sweet honey and butter mixture melted in his mouth.

“ _And what does she want in return_?” Sera asked suspicious of Minhyuk’s girl-space-friends. Sera has always considered them as leeches because what they usually asked of Minhyuk in return was either money, contacts or sexual favors. And frankly, except the middle one, Minhyuk didn’t mind. He hated giving out contacts and it must have been a big deal for Minhyuk to pay in a contact form.

“Don’t know,” Minhyuk shrugged and sipped from his coffee. “I don’t even know what she’s offering, to be honest.”

“ _Min, that’s out of all safety. I should go with you_.”

Minhyuk laughed at Sera’s offer. “No thank you, baby. I appreciate but vehemently refuse. Go question Hyungwon about the shrink that sent him the thick envelope,” Minhyuk tried to change the direction of the conversation.

“ _I will. Don’t worry, I want to know what that’s all about. Oh and by the way_ …”

“Yes?”

“ _Any info on how Hoseok settled into my place_?”

“Nada. But Kyunnie settled very well at Kihyun’s last night for sure,” he chuckled and stared out at the beginning of the sunrise.

Sera laughed wholeheartedly through the line of the phone call and Minhyuk was just so happy to hear her laugh like that. These days it happened more and more often as both Hoseok and Changkyun brought a little more light into their dark lives. They brought light that shone into places where even Minhyuk’s couldn’t reach and he even noticed Kihyun smiling more than before in their private times. Hoseok and Changkyun brought faith in humanity and down to heart goodness with them into the family, but Minhyuk was afraid that it was slowly started to fade, more noticeably in Changkyun after he discovered the real reason for his parents’ death. Hoseok’s faded a little one day when he saw him. Minhyuk didn’t know what had happened, but Sera told him couple of days later that the two shared a moment on her balcony, so he put two and two together. Hoseok knew one of their stories and his heart started to steel up.

“ _I believed he would_ ,” Sera said after she had calmed down of her small laughing fit. “ _Okay, I gotta go wake up Won_.”

“Good luck, sis,” Minhyuk smirked and hung up sighing heavily. He lulled his head to the side watching the sunrise with a tilted perspective. The horizon was bloody red. “It’s gonna be a windy day.”

Minhyuk was right. The wind was pretty damn strong today. Good thing Minhyuk decided to wear a hat rather than style his hair because it would be just hella pointless. He arranged the meeting with the girl, Kim Yuna, according to her requirements - in a fancy brunch restaurant that definitely served mimosas with Moet because she didn’t drink any other mimosas. She asked, Minhyuk did. Favors…

Of course, Minhyuk came 5 minutes early to the restaurant and got seated at the best table looking over the city scape. When Minhyuk sat down, his phone rang a message. Picking it up, he noticed the text was from one of his resources that he almost called a friend now, _almost_. Jaehyun was a cool guy that liked information as much as he liked Minhyuk and Minhyuk never passed on an opportunity for an day/evening/night with Jaehyun. For him, the ‘relationship’ they had was a win-win. Minhyuk needed to know something and if Jaehyun could get it for him and Minhyuk was content, then a fun night would come in the near future. Those were very pleasant one night stands, if Minhyuk could speak for himself.

The text from Jaehyun revealed what Minhyuk had been hoping to get out of Kim Yuna, so now, Minhyuk just had to sit through this and pay for her meal.

She came 10 minutes late, which is something Minhyuk hated and could feel slightly irritated by, but when the people at least apologized, he could get over it. However this… hm… girl (he really wanted to use a different word) came, she said nothing to excuse herself for being late or otherwise inconveniencing Minhyuk by being late, considering he told her he has a somewhat tighter schedule.

Kim Yuna sat down opposite him without a greeting, smiling sickly sweet. Minhyuk felt like he could get diabetes just from the smile. “So, I’ll have the Caviar and Truffle Toast with avocado on side and a mimosa.”

“Sure,” Minhyuk nodded, his blood was beginning to boil. He really just needed to hang in there and not flip the table over at her when her food came. He waved down the waiter and ordered for the girl.

“You’re not eating?” she questioned him.

“I’m fine. I never eat breakfast,” he replied thinking back to the delicious honey and butter toast. Nothing fancy, just a bread and butter from the shop just on the corner of his apartment building and some honey Hyunwoo got him somewhere. “I’m okay with a coffee and a cigarette.”

“I don’t smoke and neither will you,” Kim Yuna told him in a ordering manner.

“I won’t smoke inside here. This is a restaurant, no one can smoke inside.”

The food came out after a rather uncomfortable and awkward silence. Minhyuk was getting impatient and when Minhyuk got impatient with people like her, he started lightly scratching his middle and pointing finger with the nail of his thumb - as if he was tapping the back of a cigarette. It was a tell tale sign he wanted to lose and usually he was super careful about it, but he was sure Kim Yuna would never recognize it even if he did it right in front of her face.

“So....” she finally spoke when the waiter took her empty plate and placed the 3rd mimosa on the table. “You’re looking for Wenran. What is your reason?”

“You don’t need to know that,” Minhyuk shook his head.

“But I want to,” she pouted.

“Sometimes it’s better when you don’t know everything you’d want to know,” Minhyuk grinned eerily trying to relay the message.

“Okay then. Do you have a message for her?” she sipped on her drink.

“That one is not for your ears. Just tell me where I can find her. And how I pay you for this.”

“Payment… well, I think it would be best if you manage to stay alive to tell the tale of meeting Wenran,” with that she stood up unexpectedly and Minhyuk’s confused frown was replaced the second after that with a poker face. He noticed Ming Wenran walk into the restaurant and head straight to him.

When she sat on the chair opposite Minhyuk purposefully, Minhyuk almost laughed at the inability to look gracious even though she tried so hard. Ming Wenran was way too young to have the gracious movements of the women like for example La Reina of the Shin family. She tried hard to be like that but always failed miserably.

There was a silence at the table as Ming Wenran stared at Minhyuk without saying a word. He probably should have felt intimidated but Lee Minhyuk was completely amused - he didn’t think it would be this easy to get Wenran to meet him. The right corner of his lips turned slightly up and he saw her eyes flick at the grin and her gaze changed to a defensive one.

_Oh… she’s weakling… poor child._

“I heard you’re doing your research on me,” she finally spoke and just like Minhyuk thought, the voice sounded so very young.

“Well, it would be so much easier if you just told me what I want to know,” Minhyuk edged his voice with amusement.

“I think I’d rather let you run around like the idiot that you are,” she tried to insult Minhyuk, but truth be told, Minhyuk has heard worse. Much, much worse.

He sighed heavily, maybe a little too theatrically, but with the knowledge she wouldn’t understand it otherwise. “Just like I thought,” Minhyuk stood up from his chair and lazily walked around the table and stopped next to her chair, looking down at her. “Do you know who I am?”

“No. Should I?” The arrogance in her attitude was so fake Minhyuk wanted to laugh out loud.

He leaned down, getting his face close to hers and whispered menacingly: “Yeah. Yeah, you should.”

With that Minhyuk straightened up and walked away leisurely, leaving her sitting in the chair as she shouted after him. “HEY! HEEEY!”

Minhyuk turned around and walked a few steps backwards while he sent her a wink and a cocky flying kiss.

The moment he left the restaurant and got into his car Minhyuk dialed Hoseok.

“Are you up?” Minhyuk asked when his older brother picked up.

“Yeah. Of course. I just finished my workout with Hyunwoo hyung. Why?”

“Is Joo with you guys?”

“Not right now, but he is picking us up. Minhyuk, what’s up?” Hoseok questioned him again.

“Kyunnie is with Kihyun?” Minhyuk continued to ignore Hoseok’s questions.

“Most likely… why?” Hoseok inquired _again_.

“Okay, I’ll call Sera to drag in Hyungwon to our fave breakfast place. You call Kyun and Ki, okay?” and Minhyuk just kept going his own, never answering Hoseok’s queries.

“Okay, I guess,” Hoseok gave up on the possibility of getting his answers.

“I got something,” Minhyuk finally answered Hoseok’s question albeit very vaguely and hung up on the call, driving through the traffic to the Chinese place that served the best Youtiao in town.

Minhyuk arrived first and sat down in the far corner facing the entrance, since he knew he had enough time, he dialed Jaehyun’s number to thank him for the intel he texted him earlier.

Jaehyun picked up on the 4th ring and greeted Minhyuk immediately. “Hi. Was it of any use?”

“Exactly what I was looking for. Many thanks,” Minhyuk smiled at the waitress that brought him a glass of iced jasmine tea.

“Happy to be of help, honestly.” He imagined Jaehyun smiling as he answered.

“How can I _ever_ repay you?” Minhyuk repeated their typical joke, expecting a typical answer.

“Actually, this time… I would be in need of something rather than the usual,” Jaehyun said mysteriously, ruining Minhyuk’s plans for the night a little bit.

“Okay. How about I pay the usual and then you’d owe me a favour?” Minhyuk tried getting Jaehyun were he wanted him (tonight and later). It’s always better to be owed a favour rather than owe one.

“Minhyuk, tell me honestly, okay?” Jaehyun’s voice was curious, which only made Minhyuk slightly worried with the upcoming question.

“Sure,” he answered.

“You just want to…” Jaehyun sighed as he stopped himself from asking, obviously changing his question. “Want me to owe you a favour, right?”

Minhyuk was worried the first planned question would slip out from Jaehyun, because he really didn’t want to get into the matter of him actually enjoying the sex, because then it wouldn’t and couldn’t be considered a form of payment and their favours-ran relationship would probably come to an end. “Of course. Who do you take me for?”

“Lee Minhyuk, I know you too well, my friend,” Jaehyun laughed shortly. “So… your bar tonight for this intel?”

“Works with me. What do you need?”

“A friend of mine had recently encountered a mild issue with his business of smuggling illegal weapons into the country. Do you know of anyone we could get to, you know, help us?” Jaehyun asked.

“Hmm, try talking to the son of Kim Moonbin, Jihoon. He has a big influence over his father and hates working. He takes bribes well if you offer a good price. I’ll send you his number,” Minhyuk offered and noticed Hyunwoo, Hoseok and Jooheon walk through the door of the Chinese place. He waved them down to the table. They greeted the owner with full smiles and made their way to Minhyuk.

“Cheers. See you later, hm?”

“Yep, see you!” Minhyuk hung up with a smug smile as the three approached the table. “Did you call Ki?”

“Of course,” Hoseok replied. “They’ll be here in a bit.” All three of them got seated and ordered coffee and Youtiao full breakfast, just like Minhyuk, even though he had his honey toast he never passed the opportunity to eat some Youtiao.

Not even 3 minutes later Kihyun walked in, followed by smiling Changkyun dressed in Kihyun’s sweats and hoodie. Minhyuk smirked at this and prepared to tease their youngest.

“Changkyunnie,” Minhyuk called out when the two approached the table. “Did you forget to do laundry?”

Changkyun’s smile went stale and a blush appeared on his cheeks. “I have Hoseok hyung. I don’t do laundry.”

Hoseok scoffed at that amused. “Well, I haven’t seen any of your dirty clothes in our laundry bin since the last time I did laundry, soooo…”

Kihyun sat down with a grin of his own, Minhyuk could only guess that he was actually proud of what was happening. As he was about to say something Minhyuk’s eyes were dragged to the entrance where a familiar girl with short hair and a tall slim man entered the restaurant.

When they all sat at the same table Minhyuk began. “So I found out what Ming Wenran wants with you.”

Hoseok leaned forward with a Youtiao hanging from his mouth and without chewing beforehand he questioned Minhyuk with interest in his eyes. “What?”

“Well,” Minhyuk smiled evilly, "she wants you. She likes you, she desires you… simply, she _wants_ you.”

Sera burst out in a short but amused laughter, Hyungwon grinned like a mad Cheshire cat, Kihyun’s face frowned, Hyunwoo almost choked on his dried dough, Jooheon shook his head and Changkyun looked absolutely and completely confused.

Hoseok swallowed a rather large piece somewhat dryly. “Well, what are we going to do about it?”

“When it comes to her there are only two options,” Sera said with a theatrical sigh, “you either marry her or die.”

“ _What?!”_ Hoseok spat his coffee across the table and Sera just full on laughed hard.

“And why are you laughing, noona?” Changkyun kept his shocked expression on.

“Hmmm, _I,_ for one, haven’t seen Wen in _long_ time. Maybe I should go… _talk_ to her,” Sera winked at Hoseok and Changkyun with a villain-ish gleam in her eyes.

“That’s a bad idea…” Minhyuk smirked. “I love it.”

“Me too,” Hyunwoo agreed with the younger with a smirk. “Let’s let Sera handle this one.”

“Unfortunately, even though I love that idea as well, that won’t be the plan,” Kihyun noted with all seriousness.

“Oh come on, seriously?” Sera complained. “How does she fall into your plan? She wasn’t even on your horizon before.”

“Simply,” Kihyun replied and sipped from his coffee. “She can get anything she wants from Ming Zhan and her older brothers. If Hoseok marries her, he can get her wrapped around his little finger and we have a valuable puppet.”

Sera scoffed at Kihyun’s plan and rolled her eyes to the back of her head. “Hoseok? Wrap somebody around his finger? Are you mad? He’s too soft, he can barely wrap a string around his finger. What did you get high on? ‘Cause I want in on some of that!”

Hoseok looked like he wanted to say something in his defense but then realized that Sera was actually protecting him and she was right in the metaphor. There was no way he could get anyone wrapped around his finger, he wasn’t strong in that attribute.

“Hyung,” Jooheon swallowed the last bit of his breakfast and turned his gaze to Kihyun, “you know I don’t protest against many things but that’s a fucking shitty idea. Hoseok hyung doesn’t have the heart for this.”

“I agree, Ki. Not a good idea. Let Sera handle this,” Hyungwon spoke.

Kihyun sighed heavily as Sera tried one more time. “Yeah, let me handle it.”

“Okay. But don’t get yourself in anymore trouble. Oh… and by the way… you guys know I was joking, right?” Kihyun said.

Minhyuk threw a torn-off piece of Youtiao right into Kihyun’s face. “Your jokes are worse than Hyunwoo’s.”

“HEY!” Hyunwoo shouted back at Minhyuk, who just laughed him off along with everyone else at the table.

|Hyungwon POV|

It has been over 3 weeks that Sera moved into Hyungwon’s apartment. Not that he didn’t enjoy her company, on the contrary, he loved having her around, she was his person after all. It was just strange. When he asked why she was till at his apartment, she responded with Hoseok not wanting to move out because he didn’t want to go live alone into a safe house while Changkyun stayed with Kihyun. And not that Hyungwon was suspicious, but he asked Hoseok about it and Hoseok said that Sera told him to stay at her apartment, because nowhere was really all that safe now, because she has been trying to meet Ming Wenran for almost 3 weeks and she wasn’t successful. Minhyuk revealed only yesterday that the brat went to Seychelles for an open end holiday the day after she met Minhyuk.

Again, Hyungwon wasn’t complaining. He was just curious.

Hyungwon opened the door to his apartment and unsurprisingly, it was quiet and empty. Sera came and went as she needed but Hyungwon was truly a little worried every day. She used to call him every night when she got home in the past. Now, she didn’t have to call him, but their talks remained, they just had them face to face. But it somehow worried Hyungwon more, because he never knew when she would come home and many times he would find himself waiting for her, which didn’t used to happen. He never waited for her phone call, he just proceeded to do what he planned for his evening.

Today, he told himself he would contact one hallucinogens expert, Hyungwon himself was one too, but this guy had an official title, plus he did a study about what could happen if some over the counter drugs were mixed together to create a psychedelic experience and why the combination of the drugs caused it.

Hyungwon needed to know… for _curiosity_ purposes only… of course. He wasn’t going to… _use them_ …

Hyungwon didn’t even notice when Sera came into the apartment, but suddenly she was next to him but not in the range of the video call camera. He looked at her and she signalled to him that she was hungry. Hyungwon remembered it was Thursday and he promised they would go out to eat wonton soup. He nodded and turned his attention back to the video call.

“Sorry, Dr. Kim, it was great talking to you but my wife came home and I would love to spend some time with her as we don’t see each other that often due to our busy jobs,” Hyungwon politely apologized to the fellow doctor.

“Absolutely no problem, Dr. Chae. I completely understand,” the other replied.

“Thank you so much for explaining this concept to me. I will take better care now when I prescribe these medicine to my patients,” Hyungwon said.

“I have to thank you, too, Dr. Chae. You asked some very good and valid questions that didn’t even occur to my mind before. You, yourself, are a very skilled chemist, I’m impressed with how much you know at your young age. Well, I hope we can talk some time again soon.”

“Me too, Dr. Kim. Goodbye,” Hyungwon smiled as he ended the phone call and turned to Sera.

“Your wife?” she asked sarcastically as she sat on the arm rest of the couch, staring at him.

Hyungwon laughed and stood up and stretched his back. He casually walked those 5 steps to Sera and stopped like 10cm from her, looking down at her lovingly. “I told you. I told you years ago,” he lifted his hand to her face and touched her cheek with great care, “that I would marry you. And I still fucking mean it.”

Sera’s eyes stared up at Hyungwon and her lips curved into a smirk but she didn’t say anything. Hyungwon could tell she bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything.

|Hoseok POV|

It took Hoseok a while to collect the date he needed and turn it into valuable and insightful information. He hasn’t been sleeping for the past two weeks. The thing with Ming Wenran didn’t scare him anymore, what haunted him was the newspaper he read the day his sleepless nights began.

At first it was only a plan that Kihyun had made, but Hoseok adopted it and tweaked it to make it better. And ‘make it better’ he did. He now worked on a program that would link people together with human like instincts. It was difficult, time consuming and required a hell lot of programming to create basically an AI investigative program, but he wasn’t sleeping anyway, so…

His phone rang and disturbed him out of his focus. Hoseok’s eyes flew to the clock on his PC to check the time before he even picked up the phone - 02:04AM. Hoseok wondered, who was calling him at this time but when he saw the screen he wasn’t surprised in the very least.

“You’re up,” the voice came from the other side of the line right when he picked up.

“I think you knew when you called, am I right?” Hoseok smirked spinning in his chair. Some days his (now) younger sister was still a marvel to him, even though not many things about her surprised him anymore. Disturbed him, yes. Surprised, not often anymore. Hoseok weirdly got used to everything that was going on in this family and even more strangely - he came to love it along with all the members.

“Of course. I know, which balcony is mine. I’ve stared out of it enough times over the years,” Sera laughed.

“Stalker,” Hoseok laughed back at her. “Why don’t you just come up?”

“It’s not my place anymore,” she sighed a little. There was a hint of sadness in the expression and it made Hoseok frown.

“Hey, lil’ sis, what’s going on? This is still your place, so what’s wrong?”

“Oh, c’mon, Hoseok. You have more things in the apartment than I have ever had there,” she said with a bitter laughter, there was absolutely nothing happy about it.

“Sera, come up and we can talk. Your first aid box is still in here. And that big box under the bed, too. Which I have to say I still didn’t open, even though I had some thoughts about it,” Hoseok confessed.

“Okay. I’ll come up.”

Sera walked through the door of her apartment just as Hoseok was rolling 2 nice joints. He had a hunch it was that kind of a night, otherwise Sera wouldn’t come like this, at 2AM, if it had been nothing.

She plopped on the couch next to him. “Can we smoke inside or are you a freak like Kihyun?” she asked mocking their brother in the process.

“The door to the bedroom is closed and I smoke by the computer so…” Hoseok shrugged and smirked at the girl next him in black sweats and a big white hoodie. It was the first time he’s seen her in something other than black. She looked so peaceful with her eyes closed, slid down, half lying on the couch with her eyes closed, just patiently waiting for her joint. Now Hoseok understood why Minhyuk called her an angel. She really could look like one.

“Awww thank God. It always pissed me off how he always pushed me to the balcony when I wanted to smoke. Even in super winter. Such a neat freak. Maybe Kyun will even stop smoking because of that,” she chuckled, her eyes still closed, talking in a tired but not sleepy voice.

“Nah,” Hoseok licked the paper to close up the second joint. “He won’t. He loves the after sex cigarette too much.”

“Now that’s a concept I have never understood,” Sera shook her head and she reached her hand out when Hoseok tapped her knee. He placed a joint between her fingers and one of the many lighters that were literally everywhere in the apartment right now. Even in the fridge. Hoseok swore, he once went to get his yogurt and he found a lighter in the fridge.

They lit up their respective rolled up joints and silence fell over them, while both took deep inhales and exhales. Hoseok French inhaled his second one and he felt the THC hit him in the sensitive nerves in his nose. “So what is going on with you?”

And another thing that surprised him about Sera - she leaned her head on Hoseok’s shoulder in a sibling-like affection. Something tugged at his heart. She sighed before speaking. “He called me his wife today.”

“Hmm.”

Hit in, hold… exhale out. Repeat.

“And told me he would marry me like he had said in the past before,” Sera took a deep hit and held her breath for a long time, letting the smoke seep into her lungs.

“I mean… we all know that. Don’t you?”

“Know, yes. Want… that’s more of a question.”

Hoseok frowned in confusion but he dared not to move. He didn’t want to disrupt the calm circle the two of them created around themselves. “Care to share why?”

“I am a Ryu, Hoseok. We don’t live long or happy. There is nothing to love…” the last words were so silent Hoseok thought he imagined them.

“Listen, Sera,” Hoseok exhaled a grey cloud of smoke. “I know I haven’t been around for that long and maybe it’s not right for me to pull this card, but listen to what I have to say to you, okay?”

It took a while before Sera hesitantly nodded.

“My mom taught me a very important thing before I left for good when I was 18. I’m not getting into the why, maybe some other time because it was my choice, and unlike for most of you, my mom was the best woman I have met my whole entire life,” Hoseok sighed at the memory of his mom. “She taught me human beings are just that… _human_. We judge and are judged. We make mistakes but try to fix them. We want to forgive and strive for forgiveness. We love and want to be loved. We have desires but also want to be desired. We are human. Some people more and some less. Those who are less, feel none of the sides of the attributes that I just named. You both judge and want to be judged - maybe not by everyone but you value the opinion of the family. You know your mistakes and try to fix them, I’ve seen it. You forgive everyone in the family no matter what it is and you also want to be forgiven by them. You love us and you want to be loved by us - and this is important - maybe you don’t realize it yet, because the urge has been suppressed in you for way too long by both you and that horrible bastard… but it’s there. I know it. We all know it. I know it’s hard to break your old habits, but whenever you’re ready, we’re here for you. This will be over soon.”

Sera took a deep breath in, but Hoseok felt as if his words just bounced off of her, but he believed time would fix it. There was a long silence after that.

“Seokie?” she asked, her voice indicating a change of moods.

“Yeah?”

“Kihyun’s meeting the Godfather tomorrow.”

“Are you worried?”

“No. It’s just that it all might be over soon, just like you said.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't you just love how Minhyuk is? He's such a spirit of the family, isn't he? <3 And what did you think about the talk between Hoseok and Sera? What role will the Godfather play?
> 
> Please any and all thoughts that you have on the chapter ^^ I love to read your comments <3 please leave a kudo <3 if you like the story (if you haven't yet ^^). <3 <3
> 
> I hope liked this chapter and hopefully we'll see each other in the next one ^^ Stay safe! (～￣▽￣)～ <3 bye bye


	10. The Godfather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minhyuk shares a dark secret with Hoseok...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So welcome back to chapter 10! ^^ I hope you've been enjoying the story so far and I would just like to ask you that if you're a silent reader, please voice your opinion, they real mean a lot to me!
> 
> I hope you like this chapter as well. Okay, so without further talk...

|Sera POV|

For the first time in a couple of weeks Sera woke up in her apartment, but for the first time in years, she slept on the couch. She remembered falling asleep next to Hoseok after finishing the joint they shared later when they talked about random stuff going on in the world and their lives. Sera told Hoseok more about how exactly she met with Kihyun and Minhyuk and how Minhyuk’s behavior with her changed her view on physical touch. Hoseok was curious about Sera’s intimate life, about which she didn’t really talk often because all of the members of the family usually got very protective, so she never talked about her one night stands much. However she did admit her numbers weren’t low and that she always went for men, who were rough and quick and dirty and she had something other people would call a pain kink, but she called it her own way of ‘fucked up’. Hoseok asked if she had ever had anyone, who was gentle with her and she said no. To him, it was the strangest of things because he couldn’t imagine hurting someone in any way. And, Hoseok being Hoseok, he must have followed his curiosity, because why not, right… he asked the number, to which Sera replied that she didn’t count but the number could be over 100 easily. On the other hand, she didn’t forget to add that she was no Minhyuk, though. This made them both laugh and Hoseok wondered how the bar owner even managed to fit that into his schedule.

When Sera got up from the couch she somehow moved around on autopilot like she usually did before she gave up that apartment for Hoseok’s sake. She realized she didn’t take many things to Hyungwon’s, all her skin care and hygienic cosmetics were there already and she literally only brought a couple of casual clothes. However, she knew that today it was necessary to dress up a little bit. Even Kihyun was pulling one of his best suits out for lunch today.

Checking the time, Sera had about 3 hours to get ready before she had to head to the restaurant where Kihyun and her were to meet with the Godfather and his right hand man. At first, Kihyun wanted to go alone but the Godfather insisted that he was definitely not coming alone even if Kihyun swore to come unarmed, he was only willing to meet with the Grey Eminence in the company of his right hand man and told Sera’s brother that he should do the same. After that, Kihyun’s only protest to the request was that he had a right hand woman. To that, the Godfather didn’t oppose anymore.

And so, Sera was getting herself ready by watching whatever the hell was on TV in the morning, while Hoseok was running a test run of yet another program him and Changkyun have been building for the ‘grand reveal’ as the two started calling it. Their part of the plan was kind of what was stalling them right now, as they kept failing at making what they were to make bulletproof, but no one blamed them. It was no easy task what they have set out for themselves (since they even tweaked Kihyun’s original plan and made it better, which also made it more difficult, so…).

“Have you seen this ad?” Sera suddenly called out to Hoseok.

Hoseok turned around and took off his headphones. “Which one?” he scooted closer on his office chair.

Sera rewound the TV program with the satellite setting and re-played the afore mentioned ad. In the ad, there was a guy sitting on a toilet squirming in pain from diarrhoea. It was so strong he started seeing psychedelic things, including a cat dancing like Elvis Presley and there was a song that had a very bad beat and the lyrics spun around ‘toilet horrors’.

Both Sera and Hoseok laughed like crazy when the ad finished. “It’s so stupid,” Sera said while trying to calm down her laughter.

“Creativity of some people is seriously out of the park sometimes,” Hoseok chuckled as he went back to his work.

Sera was just getting dressed into her ‘important business lunch’ outfit, which consisted of a black corset-like (but really closer to short stays-like) top, high-waisted palazzo pants, black slightly over-sized but short blazer and low black Doc Martens were waiting for he by the door. She pushed her chin length hair behind one ear, sweeping two thirds of it onto one side styling it into a side oriented bob.

When Sera left her room, Hoseok spun around on his chair and nodded approvingly, to which Sera actually flipped him off. She loved her black ripped skinny jeans and oversized black t-shirts, hoodies and classic black old skool Vans.

Sera’s phone rang and she fished it out of her pocket, seeing Hyunwoo’s name. “Sup?”

“ _You’re going to the meeting with the Godfather?_ ” Hyunwoo asked, his voice laced with worry made Sera frown a little bit.

“Yeah. What’s wrong?”

“ _I’ve been trying to reach Minhyuk, but he’s not available. I called the bar and Manager Kim told me Minhyuk took a day off both yesterday and today. I can’t go see what he’s doing because I have rounds and actually need to gather some weapons from around the units and Jooheon is both dealing with the cars for Ryu Sungmoon and doing his rounds in Ming’s blinds to check on the moles we put there selling spice, so he’s not exactly available either_ ,” Hyunwoo explained the root of his worry and Sera sat down on the arm rest of the couch rubbing her forehead.

“I’ll try calling him, too. He would tell us if something was up. It’s not like Minhyuk would just go AWOL. If I don’t reach him I can maybe skip the lunch,” Sera suggested.

“ _You can’t skip the lunch and you know it. It’s very important, but you might be done with the lunch earlier than me or Jooheon, since he even went out of town. Maybe Changkyun?_ ” Hyunwoo protested against Sera skipping the meeting with the Godfather. It was very important to their plan and they couldn’t afford losing precious opportunities.

“Wait, I have an idea,” Sera turned to Hoseok, who yet again turned on his chair to face her, listening to the conversation Sera was having with their eldest brother, probably from the point when Sera mentioned Minhyuk going AWOL. “Hoseok, would you mind going to check on Min? I’ll leave you with my car and a code to his place.”

“Of course,” Hoseok replied without even taking a moment to consider it, because to him there was nothing to think over. It was his brother and that’s all that mattered.

“Thanks,” she said to her brother present in the room and then spoke to the phone again. “Hoseok will go. Kihyun will just have to pick me up. We won’t be late if I call him now.”

“ _Okay. Please tell Hoseok to be careful. Even though Ming Wenran is in some holiday destination, no one knows what happened. There still is the possibility of danger in Min’s apartment_ ,” Hyunwoo warned over the phone.

“I’ll tell him. Gotta go, though,” Sera hung up after Hyunwoo wished them both luck and right away dialed Kihyun’s number.

He picked up on the second ring. “ _Sera?”_

“Pick me up. Hoseok’s taking my car.”

“ _Okay. You’re at your place?_ ” Kihyun didn’t oppose but Sera knew there would be questions later.

“Yeah,” she responded while walking over to the door. “When will you arrive?”

“ _I just got out of the garage, so less than 10 minutes_ ,” Kihyun stated and Sera told him she would wait for him outside and hung up the call. She didn’t have time to be questioned now. She needed to give Hoseok instructions and head out. There was no way they could let anyone know some mess was going on. In their world composure was _everything_ , cool headed decisions were the mastery everyone needed to learn. And only kings of cool such as Kihyun truly went to the highest of places.

“Seokie,” Sera called out while she was tying her shoe laces and was surprised to see the hacker standing only 2 meters away from her. He’d walked over to her quietly while she was on the phone with Kihyun. “This is Minhyuk’s code for the lock on the door,” she wrote a 6 digit code on piece of scrap paper Hoseok left on the small table by the door with a pencil that was randomly lying there, too. “My guess is that he holed up at home. You have the address, right?” she asked and Hoseok nodded. “Okay, go there and if he’s not there, check if everything is in order. Meticulously. Something could have happened and some people are really good at cleaning up. I’m not going to go into detail, but I used to do it too, so… I know. But yeah… be careful and if anything text me. I’ll hold my phone in my hand, so I’ll be ready to do whatever.”

“Sure. Good luck on the meeting,” Hoseok wished his younger sister luck and smiled at her reassuringly. “I’m sure Min is going to be just fine. Maybe he just fell sick.”

“No, he didn’t. If he fell sick, he would have already complained to every single one of us and beg us to bring poor baby Minhyuk some warm soup and medicine. That’s how he is when he’s sick. Something must be up. And, Jesus Christ, it happened in the least favorable time,” Sera sighed heavily, her face looked utterly frustrated. “In any way, I have to go.”

“Good luck,” Hoseok smiled again, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and Sera walked out of the door, heading to the elevator.

Kihyun drove to the restaurant, while Sera explained what happened and why she had to leave her car behind. Kihyun, too, just like Sera and Hyunwoo, wasn’t only slightly disturbed by the fact that Minhyuk had gone AWOL but his determination to make the hell out of the meeting with the Godfather didn’t falter in the very least.

“Do you know who the right hand man is?” Sera asked when they were only 10 minutes away from the restaurant.

“I asked Minhyuk about it and he said the name of Son Junghyun,” Kihyun replied and Sera noticed the name was completely unfamiliar to Kihyun, when it should have been.

_Does he not know who Son Junghyun is?_

“Ki,” she tried to catch his attention but when Kihyun only hummed but didn’t really pay her any attention she just waved it off and got lost in her own thoughts for a bit.

Son Junghyun was the right hand man of the Godfather, but he hadn’t always been at the position. Son Junghyun used to be a famous detective, who fought against organized crime and gangs in their country. He alone had more catches of big fish than the whole department combined. So how did such a righteous guy join one of the biggest and most influential of gangs controlling the flow of the country? The thing that started it happened almost 14 years ago. Son Junghyun had a younger brother named Woojung, who lived with his wife and son in not so good of conditions. They were fairly poor and one day Son Woojung borrowed money from the wrong crowd - Ryu Sungmoon. When Ryu Sungmoon’s people came to collect and Son Woojung and his wife couldn’t pay back, Ryu Sungmoon decided to settle the matter with them by taking their only son, who at the time was 15 years old, away from them with the intention of raising him into one of the dogs that would do his deeds in the future. And his reasoning for the young man - “You should be happy I spared your life.” The parents went on a wild goose chase when looking for their son and later they died in a car ‘accident’. Detective Son Junghyun got down to investigating both the abduction/disappearance of his 15 years old nephew and the death of his brother and his sister-in-law and when he approached the captain of the unit with his discovery, he was quickly shot down along with the investigation and given a desk job, their reason being he was starting to get too old for the job (he was 39 at that time) and that he wasn’t making proper connections to the right people anymore, that his mind was no longer suitable to be the mind of a detective. Son Junghyun secretly looked into what was going on at the department and found only corruption and nothing else. And even though he was disgusted by the injustice that was going on, he still went to the one of the most powerful gangs and quickly gained the trust of the Godfather himself. And so there he was, 13 years later - on the position that belonged to the most respected men of the underworld.

Oh and the son’s name was Son Hyunwoo.

That was how Sera, Kihyun and Minhyuk met Hyunwoo. He came to the school all three of them were students of and Minhyuk managed to find out he was family, that he was only a payment and a future dog to Ryu Sungmoon. It didn’t take long for Kihyun to convince Hyunwoo, after all he was no child at 15 and could very well think with a mind of his own. He knew his parents were innocent and the sound of Kihyun’s plan only assured him that he was truly desiring to get revenge for the death of his parents, as well as the pain that was caused to the other 3 members of the family. Two weeks later, Hyungwon joined them, too. And for a long time it had been only the 5 of them.

Sera couldn’t believe Kihyun didn’t remember the name Son Junghyun, but maybe he pushed the thought out of his head for a bit.

When the two arrived at the restaurant, which was a fancy Western restaurant, Sera and Kihyun were escorted by the front of the house to the private rooms, where they arrived first.

Upon discovering they were the first, Kihyun checked his watch. “We’re 2 minutes early. Good,” he took a seat and Sera sat on his right.

The door opened again a tall old man in a navy blue suit and a younger one in dark grey came through the door. Kihyun stood up first, even though not hastily and with all the dignity he had for himself (and Kihyun had a lot), to go shake hands with the Godfather, but Sera stayed seated. She was widely known for her attitude and this was not the time to break character, no matter how much they needed the Godfather for their plan. She eyed Son Junghyun suspiciously and he did the same to her.

“So this is the infamous Ryu Sera,” the Godfather smiled as he took his seat with Son Junghyun on his left, opposite Sera, after taking care of the formalities with Kihyun.

“And you’re the Godfather,” Sera smirked. “I’m happy we’re done with the introductions.”

“I see you’re just like they say,” Son Junghyun spoke to her before the Godfather got the chance to say anything else.

“Listen, weird question,” Sera turned to the right hand man of the Godfather. “But… have you ever had any children?”

A hint of shock appeared on Son Junghyun’s face but it quickly disappeared. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no. I only had a nephew, but he felt like my own son.”

“Yeah, you look like the uncle slash father type… I hate them,” Sera said, the bitterness in her voice coming from personal experience.

“I heard you have a very specific character, Ms. Ryu,” the Godfather smiled amused at the situation happening in front of him. “I am happy to discover it’s true.”

“ _Specific_? Is that what they call a bitchy attitude these days?” Sera laughed ironically. “Oh please. Just don’t believe all the rumours you hear,” Sera waved it off and turned her sarcastic expression to the man on the opposite side of her. “I’m much worse.”

The Godfather laughed and Kihyun grinned pleased that Sera was acting just like they discussed in the car. All was going by plan so far. The Godfather looked at him and said in the most respectful tone: “Before we talk business, how about we order some wine, Mr. Yoo?”

“I would love to,” Kihyun replied and the meeting began.

|Changkyun POV|

Kihyun left for his lunch meeting couple of hours ago and Changkyun, honest to God, didn’t even notice that he had been gone. The time flew by for him as he worked on his personal business, which was illegal acquisition of stocks by hacking the system and just writing himself a piece. It was a rather difficult task so he would usually get down to doing it when he knew he would not be disturbed for the next couple of hours. Breaking down the many security walls was difficult even for Changkyun and he was a massively skilled hacker. Even some of the best of the best got caught doing this. And since Hoseok somehow for some reason came out of the equation today, he didn’t feel like working on the virus they were to develop because Changkyun hated to admit it, but he got stuck on a problem and he had no idea how to solve it and he needed his hyung’s help with it.

When the door opened and closed, Changkyun didn’t even notice, maybe one of the causes for him not hearing Kihyun enter was the music that was playing pretty loudly from the speakers by his feet.

Changkyun was sitting in the chair, leaning his head against the head rest and stared at the computer screen, his eyes running around, when suddenly a hand that touched him on the spot where his neck met the shoulder startled him but getting a whiff of the cologne, he knew it was Kihyun. The hand slipped lower under his t-shirt to his upper chest and lightly, playfully scratched his skin. Changkyun closed his eyes as he felt electricity zing through his body underneath Kihyun’s touch.

“How was the meeting?” Changkyun asked genuinely interested and he felt Kihyun lean in, his hand now on the top of his shirt and reached the waistband of his sweats and his face was close to Changkyun’s ear as Kihyun kissed him softly just behind his jaw.

“Went well, we talked a lot,” Kihyun explained simplistically and continued to kiss Changkyun’s neck eluding a pleasured sigh from the younger.

“So he agreed?” Changkyun posed another question, his heartbeat quickened when Kihyun’s hand played with the hem of his shirt but didn’t actually go anywhere.

“Yeah, we talked a lot,” Kihyun repeated and Changkyun took the opportunity to turn around on his office chair to face Kihyun.

“So, I guess you don’t wanna talk now?” Changkyun grinned at the older and crashed his lips against Kihyun’s. He was hungry for Kihyun’s touch even though they _just_ had quite a heated morning, if Changkyun could call it that.

He loved the talks he had with Kihyun about random stuff but he also enjoyed when things got physical with Kihyun, because he could be as gentle as he could be rough, and well… Changkyun liked it both ways. What could he say… could anyone blame him?

Kihyun grabbed the back of Changkyun’s neck and deepened the kiss. He grazed the younger’s bottom lip with his teeth and Changkyun pushed his hips against Kihyun’s, feeling the half-hard length against his own.

“Couch?” Changkyun question the older breathless when Kihyun finally pulled away from his lips only to attack his ear and the area around it, knowing very well that that was one of the most sensitive spots of the hacker. Changkyun let out a loud deep voiced moan since he couldn’t hold it anymore and also because Kihyun told him that he loved when he could hear him moan from what he had been doing to Changkyun. And the younger couldn’t argue, he also loved when Kihyun let out those mesmerising sounds.

“Yeah,” Kihyun pushed Changkyun gently in the direction of the couch, but before they could reach it, he took off Changkyun’s and his own shirt off. Changkyun unbuckled Kihyun’s pants and pushed a hand in, stroking Kihyun’s hardness through the fabrics of his boxer’s, eliciting that exact sound he wanted to hear from Kihyun.

Changkyun felt that Kihyun wanted to push him underneath him onto the couch but the hacker had his own intentions. In a moment of distraction, he removed Kihyun’s pants and boxers completely, leaving his hyung naked and he manoeuvred Kihyun into a sitting position on the couch and straddled him after taking his sweats off as well. “I want to ride you.”

Their lengths brushed against each other as both rutted their hips in the search for much needed friction. Kihyun placed one hand in between Changkyun’s shoulder blades and pulled their chest against his own, arching Changkyun’s back. He noticed a small bottle of lube on the table beside the couch and but was too heated up for the younger to even think about when he placed it there. Kihyun reached for the bottle and after opening it squirted some of the liquid onto his hand.

Changkyun’s chest was still pressed against Kihyun’s but his mind was too occupied to notice what the older was doing because mouth was too busy kissing Kihyun’s neck, nibbling on his earlobe and his hips were too busy seeking friction of his hard length. He only sprung back to reality and tore himself away from Kihyun’s neck only to moan at the amazing sensation of his hyung pushing a finger into his entrance after teasing it for a couple of short seconds. Kihyun’s finger moved in and out smoothly, lightly stretching Changkyun and the younger moved himself against the finger, wanting more.

He moaned loudly and passionately kissed Kihyun on the lips, pushing his tongue in, fighting against Kihyun’s own.

Kihyun pushed in a second finger and lightly curled them hoping to strike the right nerves in Changkyun. And strike he did, the younger started writhing in his arms from pleasure and Changkyun moaned Kihyun’s name, when Kihyun pushed in a third finger too.

“I’m right here,” Kihyun replied to hearing his name cheekily and Changkyun reached down to stroke Kihyun’s length, receiving a lustful groan from the older. Changkyun felt stretched out enough so he moved himself (even though rather reluctantly) from Kihyun’s fingers and positioned himself over Kihyun’s hard length and slowly, oh so slowly, lowered himself onto Kihyun, both releasing explicit groans of pleasure when Kihyun was sheathed all the way in Changkyun.

Kihyun placed his hands on Chankgyun’s hips and helped him move up and down by also moving his against, thrusting in lightly. It didn’t take long for Kihyun to lose control as he sped up the movements pushing Changkyun a little more roughly, which caused that Changkyun’s prostate was hit with each thrust. None of the two could hold back swear words and dirty talks. The older felt himself getting too close too fast thanks to that amazing ass of Changkyun’s bouncing on his cock so deliciously, so he reached for Changkyun’s hard length giving it a couple we timed strokes, smearing the pre-cum over the head. Changkyun was in seventh heaven. The pleasure Kihyun was giving him, could only be given to him by Kihyun and that made the sex even better.

“Hyung,” Changkyun moaned with heavy breathing. “I’m-I’m so… close.”

“ _Yes,_ Kyunnie, just come,” Kihyun groaned and then his chest and abdomen became spotted with white streaks of come. Seeing Changkyun’s face while he came, triggered Kihyun’s own orgasm as his hips stuttered and he thrust in real deep one last time and came into Changkyun.

Changkyun’s body collapsed on Kihyun’s in exhaustion and both of the males tried to calm down their breathing, while being pressed against one another on the couch.

After a short while Changkyun got onto his wobbly legs and he felt as if he was a little drunk when he went to search for a wet wipe or a towel he could clean them up with. He walked around the apartment naked and couple of moments later he could feel Kihyun’s cum slowly leaking out of him and coming down the inside of his thigh. Maybe he should have been embarrassed by walking around being so dirty but he actually felt better than ever.

|Kihyun POV|

Kihyun must have fallen asleep during their cuddle on the couch, after both him and Changkyun cleaned up and both put on a pair of sweats. Changkyun once told Kihyun that he loved the feeling of Kihyun’s bare chest against his back and Kihyun didn’t protest.

When he woke up, he was on the couch alone but he heard the clicking of the keyboard and smelled a joint being smoked. Just the previous week, Kihyun allowed Changkyun to smoke weed inside, after all, it did air well and Kihyun himself smoked inside, so there was really no stopping Changkyun. However the younger respectfully still went to smoke to the balcony and so far this was the second joint in the week that he smoked inside.

Kihyun rolled over onto his side to look at Changkyun sitting at the desk with his knees tucked against his chest and a lit slim joint in his hand. The thin long fingers held the burning roll with such grace that Kihyun barely believed it was possible. Suddenly a fear for Changkyun’s safety robbed him of his calmness momentarily, remembering what happened when Sera was taken and now when Minhyuk was AWOL - the last thing Kihyun wanted was for Changkyun to be dragged into some den and… He pushed the thought away realizing that was something that could be dealt with somewhere else, way more effectively rather than trying to solve it right there and right now.

What he should do right there and right now, though, was enjoy this moment with the computer genius currently seated at the desk.

“How is it possible that you hold a cigarette or a joint with such a grace, but sit the way you do?” Kihyun asked from his spot on the couch a sleepy curious voice, admiring Changkyun from behind him.

“I often ask myself the very same question. Guess, I’m just a weirdo,” Changkyun shrugged and chuckled at his own statement, never giving Kihyun a glance.

Kihyun stood up from the couch and padded over to Changkyun, barefoot and bare-chested, the steps echoed throughout the room and when he reached the desk he wrapped his hands around Changkyun from the back, letting them freely roam over the younger’s naked chest. “Maybe. But even if you are, you are my weirdo,” Kihyun said and turned Changkyun head to face him and kissed him deeply.

Changkyun groaned out of pleasure into Kihyun’s mouth from just the sole feel of their lips pressed against each other and their tongues exploring the mouths they already knew so well. When Changkyun broke the kiss for a breather, he told Kihyun: “Don’t get me started, please. I want to finish this.”

“Finish later,” Kihyun responded with another kiss, this one even needier and more passionate than the previous one.

The hacker got lost in the kiss and completely forgot about the joint still burning in his hand for a moment. “Wait, wait,” Changkyun softly pushed Kihyun away from him.

“What?” Kihyun pulled away just an inch from his lips, reluctant to stop kissing the younger. Changkyun used the chance of not having another pair of lip stuck to his own to pull further away. He put out the joint in the small ashtray and made 2 clicks on the computer to save his work before turning back to Kihyun.

Changkyun grabbed him by the nape of his neck and crashed their lips against each other again. Kihyun couldn’t even describe how much he loved kissing the younger, everywhere. He bit Kyun’s bottom lip and the hacker let out another moan, when he was pulled flush against Kihyun’s body.

|Hoseok POV|

Hoseok arrived at Minhyuk’s apartment and successfully opened the door without triggering the alarm, but the apartment was empty and quiet, so Hoseok did what Sera told him to do and checked for anything weird or out of place.

He checked everything and it took him good 15 minutes of meticulous search for anything that could be wrong with Minhyuk’s place but he found nothing. Everything looked perfectly normal, perfectly Minhyuk. The shoes weren’t precisely stacked in the shelves like Kihyun’s, which was Minhyuk’s way. There were three coffee cups in the sink and an empty dishwasher, this too was very Minhyuk. His bed was unmade and there were random socks lying around the bedroom, which Hoseok also learned was a Minhyuk thing to do. In the bathroom the towel hanging on the hook was still a little damp, which meant Minhyuk took a shower in the morning and then left. Everything was as if he only left for work.

So Hoseok decided to wait for Minhyuk in his apartment, knowing that Minhyuk has his Netflix connected to his TV. Hoseok didn’t watch shows or films all that often, only if Changkyun convinced him to watch something when they were high or when Sera hung out with him at ‘their’ place as he started calling it, because at this point it was neither his, nor hers - they both kinda lived there.

Scrolling through the offer he settled on a series called Archer, as he had heard from Jooheon that it was really entertaining.

Many hours later, which was almost 3 seasons and 2 takeout orders eaten later, Hoseok heard the lock on the front door beep. Turning his body to face the door, he noticed Minhyuk walk in cautiously with slumped shoulders, so he called out: “Don’t worry, Min. It’s just me!”

Minhyuk’s head whipped up and his wide eyes settled on Hoseok sitting on his couch, completely shocked to discover him there. “What are you doing here?”

Hoseok also noticed the deep red and puffy eyes that Minhyuk was trying to hide behind his long bangs. “Min? Have you been crying?” he asked confused.

“What? No!” Minhyuk lied straight into Hoseok’s face and then took of his shoes and shrugged off his jacket, leaving it to lie on the floor as he made his way to the couch to sit next to Hoseok. “Why would I cry?”

“Your eyes are fucking puffy. Don’t lie to me. What happened?” Hoseok pressed on for answers.

Minhyuk sighed, slid down further into the couch letting his head hit the back rest and he sighed heavily. He closed his eyes and took a deep desperate breath in before speaking. “Do you remember, I told you once about the couple that I used to get information from in the past?” Minhyuk said and fell silent. Hoseok nodded even though, he knew Minhyuk couldn’t see him with his eyes closed. “And that these days, I only occasionally visited them for some stuff I couldn’t dig up on my own, which would be _maximum_ twice per year? But like, I try to avoid it at all cost all the damn fucking time?” He went quiet again and Hoseok nodded again. “Last time I was there was when Sera had been taken and that was the first time in over a year after I promised myself I would never fucking enter that place again. Ever.”

A silent tear slipped out of Minhyuk’s eye and he immediately wiped it off with the sleeve of his long black t-shirt. “Yeah, I remember. You said you hated them,” Hoseok responded in a soft voice, wondering what was upsetting Minhyuk.

“Yeah, I had to go there today and it was worse than ever before,” Minhyuk confessed with a heavy sigh.

Hoseok’s brows knitted together in a confused frown and he put his hand on Minhyuk’s shoulder. “Why? What did they do to you?”

Minhyuk sighed again, this time there was pain lacing the heavy exhale and Hoseok’s first thought was that it, of course, must have been nothing good. “Do you know what sadistic voyeurism is?”

Hoseok almost choked on the bulge that grew in his throat, barely believing that the younger was even asking such a thing. He swallowed it down, though. “Y-yeah.”

“Blood fascination?” Minhyuk questioned further, unmoving from his position, eyes remaining closed, but more tears kept spilling from behind them.

“I’ve heard of that,” Hoseok whispered, not really knowing what to expect next.

“Well, those two sick motherfuckers are exactly that,” Min said painfully.

“W-what? No… you can’t be serious, Min…” only then Hoseok noticed the white bandages on Minhyuk’s forearms and wrists peeking out from beneath the black long sleeves. “They cut you?” Hoseok was, in absolute disbelief, reaching carefully for Minhyuk’s hand.

“No… they… watch… while I…” his voice failed him and broke and Hoseok didn’t care about anything else other than taking his hurt (physically, emotionally and mentally) younger brother into his arms and giving him a gentle yet protective hug.

“Min,” Hoseok’s voice broke as well when quiet sobs started to rip through Minhyuk’s body in his arms.

“That’s- that’s why I never took Ki or Sera there, even though they really wanted to see my sources… I couldn’t let them see,” Minhyuk admitted and Hoseok felt his own cheeks being stained by tears.

“Let Ki and Sera see what they-“

“No.” Minhyuk cut the older off. “I couldn’t let those two sick monsters see Kihyun and Sera, I can’t even… what they would…” another sob made the younger’s body shake.

“Min…”

“Every time I go there… they say my skin is too white… too smooth, too porcelain-like… I…”

“Min,” Hoseok repeated with a constricted voice and pulled Minhyuk even closer into the protection of his arms.

“Hoseok, I really can’t anymore,” he started crying for real now, out loud, not just silently withstanding the pain inside. And Hoseok just held him for as long as Minhyuk needed.

The next day, Hoseok called Sera when he left Minhyuk’s apartment after helping Minhyuk to settle down. The latter apologized about a million times because he ‘was such a mess’ and confessed that, of course, this was the first time he let anyone of the family know about this, silently asking Hoseok to keep his secret.

Hoseok hated the fact that Minhyuk, Minhyuk out of all people - the brightest shining person in this unforgiving world, was being destroyed, damaged, hurt like this. Hoseok knew there was darkness in this new world he was experiencing and he realized a long time ago that his soul and heart would harden, that he wouldn’t be the same if he got on board with Changkyun those almost 8 months ago. But he regretted nothing. Not a single thing. And now more than ever, he felt the weight of the darkness that started to settle into his heart, soul and mind too.

That was why he wasn’t surprised when his thoughts spun around what he was going to do about this new and most painful discovery. His good heart hurt for every member of the family and their stories, but those were in the past and they were already doing something about it. But this… this was something no one knew about and nobody was doing anything to deal with it. So as the older brother of Minhyuk, Hoseok took it upon himself to solve his problem.

And he knew only one person, who could help him deal with this. And that was the reason he called Sera over for a joint on their balcony that evening.

The two sat in the chairs on the balcony just like back then when Sera told Hoseok her story after they initiated the spice plan. The unknowing sister was enjoying the joint when Hoseok spoke with a dark voice. “Sera?”

“Hm?”

Hoseok took a breath in and voiced his thoughts in a low but dark voice, much darker than Sera has ever heard him speak in. “What would you do if I told you I had someone I wanted to kill?”

Sera thought about it for a second before replying. “Well, since it’s you…”

“Is there a difference between me and Kihyun?” Hoseok asked, maybe just a little irritated that Sera indicated there might be a difference between their requests.

Sera looked her brother in the eye. “For one, yes. Because Kihyun has asked me to kill many people many times, but you have never asked anything like that. So, of course there’s a difference, your view of the world has not been crooked, yet.”

“Well…” _That’s not true anymore_ , Hoseok thought to himself. “Okay, let’s say it’s me then.”

“Then I would ask you how painfully you want them to die,” she replied truthfully. Hoseok saw the gleam in her eyes and he could surely claim it was the truth because now he knew Sera more than well. And also because he had heard the response she gave Kihyun, when he’d asked her to ‘deal with someone’. Her reply in those cases was always the same: ‘When’s the deadline?’ But she had asked Hoseok how much he wanted them to suffer and he realized the difference between him and Kihyun was radical. With Kihyun, it was normal, casual, just something they did. With Hoseok, it was personal, because somebody had hurt her brother and they had to pay.

“Very painfully,” he said with a strong voice, taking another hit of his joint.

“So then… I would tell you that that’s what I do best.” Hoseok nodded in acknowledgement of Sera’s statement. “But are you sure you don’t want to tell me why?” She understood quickly this wasn’t a hypothetical question.

“I just want to protect our family.”

“Seokie, what do you mean?” her voice grew concerned with Hoseok’s dark and hardened facial expression. She has never seen it that dark before.

“It’s not my story to tell.”

“Hoseok…” she tried again.

“No. Don’t prod. I won’t tell,” Hoseok shook his head and passed the joint to his sister.

“Okay,” she said and took a hit. “Let me know when you decide.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of Hyunwoo's story of coming to the family? And about Minhyuk revealing his dark and hurtful secret? How many scars does it take before one brakes down completely? What role might the Godfather play now that we know, who he is? What about the change that Hoseok went through?
> 
> Please share your thoughts and opinions about the story or the characters! I love to read them every time ^^
> 
> Please come back to find out what happens next time! And until then, I hope you're staying safe wherever in the world you are and hope you're doing well! See you (～￣▽￣)～


	11. The Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyunwoo reveals a scar on his heart...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Welcome to a new chapter of Little Psycho ^^ I really hope you like this chapter and just like in the last one, if you're a silent reader please, please share your thoughts on the chapter - it really makes me happy when I can interact with you <3 ^^

|Hoseok POV|

Sera sat opposite Hoseok in the busy café he had picked for their meeting. It’s been 3 days of endless search and little sleep for Hoseok, while trying to dig up the identities of the two sadistic mother fuckers, who damaged Minhyuk and probably would in the future again if Hoseok didn’t decide to do something about it.

He watched Sera’s morning (it was 11ish AM, though) face go from part sleepy to confused and settle on out right pissed off, but like a composed pissed off. She held it in, even though Hoseok knew she must have been raging on the inside, just like he was the whole entire time. This matter didn’t let him sleep at all. Changkyun had been calling him all the time to work on the bug they were trying to get out of the virus so they could move onto the next stage of their epic preparations and finally start filing in the data they had obtained, but Hoseok never picked up. He never left the apartment in the 3 days of his search and in the end the whole family minus Sera and Hyunwoo came to the apartment to check whether he was sick or dead or just ignoring them for no good reason. He quickly hid his work and blamed everything on an upset stomach. And so, the family left him with Hyungwon, who had just looked at him knowingly and told him that he could have just picked up the phone and said he had needed some alone time, that they all would have understood, instead of making them worry like that.

And now, there was a dead silence between him and Sera at their small table by the window. Hoseok could almost see the wheels turning inside Sera’s brain as she thought out her next steps.

“I have just the place I want to take them to,” Sera finally said and Hoseok witnessed an expression sitting on her face that he had hoped he never would, but then again it was necessary. He now understood their world that some time ago became his as well. Sera grinned maliciously with an evil gleam in her eyes, but her voice was honey sweet. This combination scared Hoseok to the bone and he was sure it would scare just about anyone.

“I want to see it,” Hoseok decided against his better internal judgement.

Sera raised her brow and asked, half-amused: “Are you sure?”

“I want to be sure with my own 2 eyes that they will pay for what they have done to him. I don’t care about humanity, at least not for these people,” Hoseok confessed and he felt something inside him die as he finally admitted this out loud. He could have been lying to himself that all human life was worth, while those were ‘just some thoughts’, but now that it became a voiced opinion, he couldn’t lie anymore and he burned the first part of the proverbial bridge to heaven. He just hoped someone would keep a warm spot for him by the fire when this was all over.

“You know, Seokie, I did think Changkyun would turn out like this. Not you,” Sera stated sympathetically, but Hoseok could feel deep understanding of where it was coming from. And that was one thing he thoroughly appreciated about Sera. She accepted all the members of the family with their flaws and the weight they carried on their shoulders. Because she was just as fucked up as everyone else, if not more.

“Let me know when you get your hands on them?” Hoseok strayed away from the topic Sera bit into. He didn’t want to talk about how much he was failing his mother’s teaching right now.

“Of course,” Sera put that evil smile and honey-like voice back on and Hoseok was sure, so sure, that those two would never get out of Hell into Purgatory, let alone Heaven. Sera was going to make their last living moments absolute hell.

|Kihyun POV|

It was another normal morning for Kihyun. He woke up much earlier than the younger man sleeping next to him, but he didn’t really need to wake him up today either, since Changkyun brought his laptop with him to Kihyun’s place and often worked from there. Last night he said that because Hoseok had been acting weird he would prefer to stay at Kihyun’s place or ‘one more day’. And who was Kihyun to protest?

So he got out of the warm comfortable bed rather reluctantly, this became a nuance in his life only after the other side of the bed started to belong to Changkyun. He never actually thought he would find someone he would want to sleep next to, someone he would feel secure enough to fall asleep next to, someone worth falling asleep next to.

Kihyun showered in his typical manner, washed his hair and executed his skin care routine with meticulous precision; he picked his clothes for the day, considering his schedule of only having an internal meeting with the official company’s development team about a new gadget they worked on to put on the market, he didn’t really need the most special of suits. Kihyun settled for the basic dark blue slim fit suit and a white button up and today no tie.

When he walked out of his walk-in closet, he noticed Changkyun wasn’t in the bed anymore and the sound of the shower made Kihyun wonder why the younger got up so early, since he went to bed pretty late last night after his lost battle with the frustrating bug, claiming Hoseok was giving him a headache because he was just not helping him with their work at all.

So, in the kitchen Kihyun made two sets of breakfasts, but unlike most days he didn’t cover one, but rather waited for Changkyun to join him, while sipping his coffee and reading the paper on his tablet. A thought crossed his mind about how quickly he got used to this domestic feeling he had around the younger man and how every time he felt that he wouldn’t mind having this every day for the rest of his life. He sighed and a small content smile formed on his lips.

_Yes, I could do this every single day for the rest of my life._

Changkyun’s footsteps echoed around the room as the bare feet touched the ebony red wooden floors. He sat next to Kihyun, who looked up at him and his smile widened.

“Something good happened today?” Changkyun asked mirroring the same smile Kihyun had on his lips.

“You woke up without me having to wake you up,” Kihyun decided to tease the younger.

“Well, don’t get used to it, hyung. I like when you wake me up,” Changkyun shrugged and reached for his coffee. Kihyun was so happy he managed to change that horrible habit Changkyun had - his breakfast being a cup of coffee and a cigarette or two. That was the least healthy thing the younger one could do.

Kihyun chuckled and pointed to the article he was reading on the tablet. “Chief Detective Yoo solved another case.”

“What case?” Changkyun leaned in interested.

“Some murder, but we know who did it. Some random guy ‘confessed’ after being under pressure by the police. Or so the article says,” Kihyun sighed heavily. “But we know better that to believe this bullshit they’re feeding to people.”

Changkyun hummed in agreement to that statement and took a bite of his breakfast, after which he hummed again in appreciation for the taste. “How is the spice operation going?”

“It’s been quiet. Hyunwoo hyung is going there tonight to check why it’s been like that. It should have been in the news already. Hyung mentioned the sale was going well and that the moles sold everything they had every night, so by this time we should have seen something in the news,” Kihyun responded.

“Guess, we’ll find out tonight.”

Both of them fell into comfortable silence and ate their breakfast until about 5 minutes later Changkyun broke the quiet atmosphere with a low and vulnerable sounding voice. “Hyung?”

“Yes?” Kihyun turned his attention from the paper to the hacker.

“I have a hypothetical question.”

“Shoot,” Kihyun smiled softly.

“If my parents never died and you’d have no reason for meeting me but then you somehow ran into me somewhere, completely unrelated to your plan… would you still be interested in me?” The tone of Changkyun’s voice almost broke Kihyun’s heart. The younger was so unsure, so insecure about the answer he was going to receive.

“I wouldn’t,” Kihyun replied plainly, as a matter of fact. He saw pain and hurt flash through Changkyun’s face as he looked up from his food.

“Hm?”

“I wouldn’t meet you, Kyunnie. I wouldn’t stumble over you. I am way too careful to do that,” Kihyun clarified, but Changkyun’s expression didn’t change.

“Oh.”

“But let me tell you what’s been on my mind for a while now,” Kihyun suggested and Changkyun nodded, willing to listen. “In life, there are many factors that shape it. Maybe there is an alternate universe where my mother wasn’t pushed out of her childhood home and she brought me up to be a righteous person. Maybe there is a universe where I joined Ryu Sungmoon and told him that I am his son and I became just like him. There are just so many possibilities. But in our world, I met you through an unfortunate set of events and even though the truth is that I would truly prefer your parents still being alive, so that you never got tangled with us in business, and despite that I would have rather you lived a safe happy life, I wouldn’t change a thing, ‘cause due to all the bad things that happened and will happen, we are family and _that_ to me is the most important thing in the world. That I have _you_ and the others, and that you are safe and sound, Kyunnie. So, yes, the answer to your hypothetical question is ‘no’ but know it’s because I wouldn’t want to drag you into any danger.”

Changkyun was quiet for a moment, processing all that Kihyun just told him. “Okay,” he quietly answered, but he looked content with the answer that Kihyun had given him. Changkyun then got off the stool next to Kihyun and hugged the older one tightly, while Kihyun’s heart swelled as he wrapped his arms around Changkyun just as tight.

Kihyun really expected to have a peaceful day, but when every time Minhyuk called him and he saw his name light up the screen, Kihyun knew he would not be bored, because either Minhyuk called due to being bored and felt the urge to tell Kihyun jokes over the phone until Kihyun actually laughed at one, not only pretended to _or_ something was up. And ‘something was up’ was either Kihyun having to go to the bar to discuss said something or Minhyuk would just straight out tell him over the phone.

“Kihyunnie,” Minhyuk chimed over the phone when Kihyun picked up.

“Jokes?” Kihyun asked already with a smile on his face. He would never _ever_ say it out loud but he actually enjoyed when Minhyuk told him jokes, appropriate or not. He laughed at almost every but since he wanted to have a little bit of fun and tease Minhyuk just a tiny bit, he would say many times they weren’t all that funny. Once he hung up though, he would crack up on some of them many times during the rest of the day when no one saw him.

Minhyuk huffed. “Unfortunately no. I have a rather unpleasant discovery.”

“What is it?” Kihyun smile faltered and he smoothly crossed over to his serious mode.

“That Mexican skelm cancelled their flights,” Minhyuk informed him and Kihyun sighed in small frustration. Now he had to dip his toes into the cold water again. Kihyun really hoped La Reina would listen to his ‘friendly’ advice.

“Okay. I’ll deal with it today,” Kihyun stated.

“She’s going grocery shopping with her guards at 2PM,” Minhyuk slipped in another detail and Kihyun internally praised him on how well he was informed about everyone and everything they did.

“Ki?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you wanna hear a joke?” Minhyuk chuckled into the phone. Kihyun checked his watch. It was still early, so he had the time.

One would think that the house of the most influential woman of the Shin family, who goes by La Reina would be way more protected. That there would be way more guards even as the woman left the house. But no.

Kihyun just simply entered the house with the code Minhyuk has left him with and politely took his shoes off at the door before grabbing a pair of slippers from the shoe closet. Kihyun strolled into the kitchen and checked his watch again. It was just after 3PM and he wondered for how much longer the woman would be doing grocery shopping. He decided to make himself a cup of coffee. He really made himself at home in the house he had never been in, but he knew this pretense was something that always gained him respect and position he needed to showcase.

He had been inside the house for about 5 minutes, slowly sipping on his coffee when he heard the lock of the door and one pair of feet shuffling inside. Kihyun would lie if he said he wasn’t surprised that none of the guards helped the future mother with the shopping.

La Reina appeared in the doorway to the kitchen and froze in place when she came face to face with Kihyun, who was just casually sitting at the breakfast bar in her kitchen, when she made sure to lock the door properly. “La Reina,” Kihyun greeted her with a polite nod.

“Yoo Kihyun,” she responded and looked around the room with tensed shoulders. As soon as she saw that he was alone, she relaxed a bit. “What are you doing here?”

“I think I should be the one asking that question. I told you to leave the country,” Kihyun reminded her with an evil smirk starting to form on his face. She seemed quite a wise woman, so why wouldn’t she do what he told her to do when there were such high stakes at hand, Kihyun could not wrap his mind around that.

“And leave my business behind?” La Reina walked over to the counter where she placed the one bag with groceries and turned to face Kihyun again.

Kihyun clicked with his tongue in display of his annoyance with her. “Oh, but you’re soon to become a mother,” he said in a sweet sick-honey voice that he learned from Sera. Whenever he heard his little sister speak like that he got goose bumps in the past. Then he realized it really was something that worked on almost everyone.

Her face paled and she subconsciously placed her hand over her belly in a caring and protective manner. It wasn’t very visible and Kihyun could see the confusion on her face as to how he knew this information as she replied in a weak, almost broken voice. “Don’t drag my unborn son into this.”

“Then you should have listened to me when I told you to leave the country with your husband,” Kihyun warned her again. He was serious about wanting her and the Shin family out of the picture. He needed to get their lands before his plan would come to the end. And if La Reina was out of the picture it would all just go well.

“What do you want?” she asked him the same question as during their previous meeting.

“Oh, that’s extremely simple… if you want your child happy and alive, you’ll do what I tell you, hm?” Kihyun suggested with his honey voice.

La Reina breathed in heavily and exhaled, her eyes darting everywhere around the room looking rather indecisive as she thought over the offer. “And after we leave?”

“Just take the deal, honey,” Kihyun said firmly with a tone to his voice that could only be described as evilly manipulative. Kihyun hated when he had to warn people twice. She swallowed hard and dry, but nodded in agreement to Kihyun’s offer, to which he only responded with a sweet evil smile very pleased with the outcome. “Wonderful.”

|Hyunwoo POV|

Hyunwoo enjoyed his days out there in the streets. He didn’t get to do them as often as he used to before Kihyun rose to power, but he thought that was the whole appeal of it, that now he did those days when he wanted to or because a problem arose and he had to solve it.

And even though there was a problem that needed Hyunwoo’s attention, he was still pretty calm about going into the Ming’s blinds. His face was rather unknown among the ‘everyday’ dealers, so he could move around freely and find his men that were supposed to be selling and moving around the spice they were given by him and Jooheon as a part of Kihyun’s plan.

When he talked to Sera about her joining him, she refused. That was for the first time in a long time Sera had refused to go into the streets to ‘have some fun’, as she loved to call it. For a moment Hyunwoo pondered about asking her what she had been up to again, but then he calmed his curiosity down with thoughts that he needn’t to know everything Sera was doing. It was for the best.

Hyunwoo met up with a two of his men so far and both of them claimed they sold all the spice they had every night. The head of operations never asked anything further, they didn’t know and had no need to know why Hyunwoo had been pressing them into selling the drug, after all, no one apart from the family ought to know about this.

After 3 hours of roaming the streets Hyunwoo finally ran into the last person they placed into the blinds. It was a fairly young man, whose name Hyunwoo could not remember but he guessed the boy could have been younger than Changkyun. The oldest brother of the family had no idea how the boy even got into the Ryu family, but he felt bad for the kid, since he should not be a part of this whole drug cartel thing, selling drugs at night in the most dangerous part of town instead of studying for some university exam.

“Hyung,” the younger politely bowed in greeting to Hyunwoo, who nodded in return.

“How’s it going tonight?”

“Not bad at all. I’m about to finish actually. I only have 3 baggies left, but sometimes people buy more than one in one go, so…” the younger one responded, trying hard to act cool.

“Good. Did anyone notice you or did you notice anything weird?” Hyunwoo kept on asking questions.

“I don’t think anyone noticed me, but I have heard that one guy that I sold to was a Shin guy and someone from the guys that I was playing cards with mentioned he died. They don’t know how, but apparently the police found him in the business district in some back alley,” the younger one disclosed.

“Interesting. Thanks for the info,” Hyunwoo smirked at the younger.

“Hyung, don’t really turn around but the guy behind you is looking at us weirdly,” the kid warned Hyunwoo, but the oldest brother knew what a weird look in the blinds meant. He quickly pushed the kid against the wall, out of the way, and before he could even break into a sprint in the direction away from the guy, he heard a gunshot echo through the streets. A split moment later there was a sharp pain in the back of his right shoulder.

Hyunwoo started running and pulled out his own gun from the holster underneath his black leather jacket. He turned the corner and quickly oriented himself, the location of his car was only two streets down and across. He didn’t know the blinds all that well, so he didn’t want to get lost but also couldn’t afford to be slow at this point, so he had to think fast. He decided to turn another corner and run into a no-exit alleyway with a couple of trash bins in it. It was the stupidest idea he could have come up with, but he hoped that it would work exactly because it was such a dumb idea.

 _No one hides behind trash cans anymore, right?_ Hyunwoo asked himself as he ducked behind a large and thankfully empty bin, breathing heavily both from the run and the pain in his right shoulder. Since Hyunwoo was a rightie, he would shoot with his right hand and even though he could withstand the pain of lifting his arm, his aim could be off and he couldn’t afford that right now. Then the man, who shot at him and 2 other ran past the alley and Hyunwoo recognized one of them because he used to sell on their grounds.

 _So, he was a mole from the Ming? Now it makes sense why he was so friendly,_ Hyunwoo remembered him well. The guy always wanted to play cards, grab a beer, and treat ‘his hyung’ to a dinner, among others. Not wanting to seem suspicious, Hyunwoo accepted a beer, but then when the guy started asking questions about things he should not pry about, Hyunwoo knew where to place him.

Therefore, Hyunwoo quickly reached the conclusion that the guy knew what Hyunwoo had been doing there in the blinds belonging to the Ming family. The kid Hyunwoo had been talking to was definitely dead by the time the three men ran past the alley Hyunwoo was hiding in.

_That’s why you should have stayed at school, kid._

Hyunwoo waited for a little bit longer in his hideout and after listening to the sounds of the street and shouts of the men from the Ming gang he decided this was the best time to get out. His right hand gripped tightly around the gun as he carefully stepped out of the alley looking left and right.

All clear.

Treading with caution but moving his feet swiftly, navigating himself correctly to his car on the border of the blinds, he got in and started the engine. He drove away as fast as possible, checking the time - 1:38AM. “Sorry, Won,” he muttered to himself as he made his way to the doctor’s apartment.

Hyunwoo parked in front of Hyungwon’s apartment building feeling a little strange as he rarely visited Hyungwon in his home. Usually it was Hyungwon, who came to them whenever someone got injured but Hyunwoo didn’t want to call him, since Hyungwon was not an easy person to wake up in the first place and it was also faster for Hyunwoo to get to him rather than ask the doctor to meet him at his office.

Getting out of the car, Hyunwoo dialed Hyungwon’s number and the phone rang and rang. He didn’t really expect for the younger to answer the phone, but he wanted to maybe try to wake him up, before he got to his door.

He tried to get Hyungwon to pick up the phone three times but nothing. Hyunwoo walked into the lobby after the building’s security guard let him in. “Can I help you with anything, sir?” the guard asked him.

“Yes, actually. My brother lives in this building, on the 18th floor in the apartment 1805, Dr. Chae Hyungwon,” Hyunwoo said truthfully, but the guard looked sceptical. “And you see, my girlfriend kicked me out of the apartment after coming home really late from my best friend’s bachelor party. I need a place to stay.” Surprisingly, Hyunwoo was pretty good at lying about this, but the guard unfortunately didn’t even take it into consideration.

“Try calling him, sir. I cannot let you up,” the guard told him firmly.

“He’s a tight sleeper.”

“Then please try one of your other friends, sir. I really don’t think I can help you with this,” the guard shook his head again.

“Okay, I’ll call him again, but maybe you could try finding me in his close contacts list. I can show you multiple IDs of myself if necessary,” Hyunwoo suggested pulling out his phone again, dialing Hyungwon’s number and putting him on speaker phone.

The guard clicked his tongue but actually did what Hyunwoo suggested. The call rang out again and Hyunwoo sighed dramatically. “See, I told you.”

“Okay. Show me your ID,” the guard said and Hyunwoo smiled brightly, making sure to make minimal movements with his right arm and shoulder since the blood around the wound started to coagulate, the bullet in the wound stopped the bleeding at least a little bit. He pulled out his wallet and handed the guard his ID with his clean hand.

The guard took the ID and asked for the driver’s licence too, to which Hyunwoo complied and fished out the second card as well. The guard looked them over unhurriedly, checking for anything that might be fake or a lie. But Hyunwoo knew what was on the computer screen on the man’s desk. He was looking at a scan of Hyunwoo’s ID, which the family needed to hand in when Hyungwon was moving in and giving his emergency contacts to the security of the building.

“Alright, it seems fine. You can go,” the guard returned Hyunwoo’s ID and driver’s licence and motioned with his hand to the elevators.

“Thank you. But could you maybe call him from your phone to the apartment’s phone. I don’t want to get stuck in front of the door. He might have his cell phone on silent and that’s why he’s not picking up,” Hyunwoo asked politely.

“Sure,” the guard agreed and dialed the internal phone. He also put it on speaker when Hyunwoo asked him to.

And many, many rings later an incredibly sleep heavy voice picked up the phone. “Hello?”

Hyunwoo wanted to speak, but the guard was faster. “Dr. Chae, your brother is here.”

Hyungwon sighed and Hyunwoo imagined him rubbing his eyes sleepily. “Which one?”

“Won, it’s me,” Hyunwoo announced.

“Hyung. What time is it? Are you okay?” Hyungwon asked, using their ‘time’ code.

“Yeah, I’m good. I just got kicked out of my own house again, at 1 fucking AM,” Hyunwoo chuckled and just stopped himself from wincing as he leaned onto his right hand.

“Oh, shit. Come up, hyung,” Hyungwon’s voice suddenly sounded much more awake as he hung up the phone and Hyunwoo smirked at the guard.

“Women,” he shook his head and the guard gave him a sympathetic look as Hyunwoo went to the elevator. As soon as the door closed, Hyunwoo groaned loudly from the pain throbbing in his shoulder. The quiet elevator reached the 18th floor rather swiftly and as he got out he turned right to find the door with 1805 on them.

Hyungwon was already waiting for him, standing in the opened door. When Hyunwoo entered Hyungwon’s skilled eye checked out Hyunwoo’s posture and immediately noticed the slumped right shoulder.

“Hyung, what happened?” Hyungwon question his older brother while he helped him take off the destroyed jacket.

“I went out to the blinds to find out what is going on with the spice and why we’ve not seen any news of anyone dying and one guy, who used to sell in our territory, shot me. I knew he looked suspicious back then, but only now I know why,” Hyunwoo explained the story simply and shortly, cautiously sitting down in the chair at the kitchen table where Hyungwon led him.

Hyungwon quickly looked over the wound before making his way to his supply cabinet, just under the bar, from where he also picked out a bottle of rum that had been sitting there for ages. He gave the bottle to Hyunwoo. “I don’t have any local anaesthesia in the house right now, so this will have to do.”

“I’m good with pain, Wonnie. Not Sera good, but good,” Hyunwoo assured him with a grin, even though he was sure Hyungwon knew. Plus Hyunwoo’s drinking tolerance was also pretty high, that half bottle of rum wouldn’t do much to a mountain of a man like him.

“I know, hyung. It’s just a habit to give you guys some help,” the doctor responded as he prepared his instruments and disinfected them meticulously.

Hyungwon straightened Hyunwoo’s back and positioned him in the chair the way he wanted him and got to work. Once Hyungwon fished out the bullet and dropped the bloodied up piece of metal onto the table along with the forceps he was holding he cleaned the wound and got to stitching it up neatly. When he was done, he dressed the wound in gauze and taped the edge to hold the piece of clean white fabric on the skin.

“So, hyung,” Hyungwon sighed as he sat on the chair next to Hyunwoo, who hasn’t even touched the bottle of rum in front of him and started to clean what could be cleaned and throw away things that needed to be thrown away. “Do you have a death wish? Why the fuck did you go alone?”

“Sera couldn’t go,” Hyunwoo answered only the second question.

“I thought she was with you,” Hyungwon looked at him a little confused.

“She said, she had something else to do. Pretty important, too. I didn’t pry about the details, you know I never do,” Hyunwoo tried rolling his shoulder a little bit but only hissed in pain.

Hyungwon shot him an irritated glare about the action. “Don’t do that. And now please answer my first question. Do you have a death wish? You could have waited for Jooheon, too.”

“You know, some days I’m starting to think if it’s that much of a shame if I follow Hyolyn,” Hyunwoo sighed heavily, his mind weighted him down with the memories of his late wife.

Hyolyn was an incredibly beautiful woman that Hyunwoo met years ago, when he was only 22. They fell in love hard and fast and got married rather quickly. It wasn’t even a year into their marriage (which was way less than 2 years into their relationship altogether) that Hyunwoo sadly discovered the horrible truth that Hyolyn was planted into Hyunwoo’s life by Ming Zhan. The man wanted intel on the head of operations of the Ryu family and Hyolyn was his trusted instrument. After telling this to the other 4 members of the family (that was long-long before Changkyun, Hoseok and Jooheon came in, back then they were still 5), Sera suggested slow and painful, but Hyunwoo didn’t have the heart for it. No matter how betrayed he had felt, he loved Hyolyn deeply, so he begged Hyungwon to give him a poison that would make her departure quick and as painless as possible. Then, one night when they had their dinner in their home (a meal they cooked together laughing and kissing along the evening during the preparation of the dinner) Hyuwoo secretly mixed the poison into Hyolyn’s wine. They sat down after finishing the preparation of the meal and before they dug into it, they clunk glasses taking a sip of their wine. Short moments later, Hyunwoo held Hyolyn’s convulsing body in his arms on the floor, while tears spilled out of his eyes for the woman dying in his embrace. He loved her and he couldn’t deny it, even though he knew who and what she was. Ever since that day Hyunwoo hated the smell, look and taste of any Italian pasta, every kind of red wine and blamed himself for the death of his beautiful wife that he had missed every day despite the fact he never admitted it out loud.

“Hyung, are you joking?” Hyungwon asked him softly. “She used you. She used you, wrapped you around her finger and wanted to sell all of us out.”

“I loved her, Hyungwon,” Hyunwoo said for the hundredth time, sadly. His heart was aching for the long dead woman and many times he would wake up in the middle of the night from a dream with her.

“I know, hyung,” Hyungwon leaned in with an understanding expression in his face. “But what about us? What do you think we would feel? Happiness that you rejoined that snake you had for a wife? Or grief that a brother has left our lives? Hyung, you are important.”

Hyunwoon’s eyes teared up and he showed the younger a sad smile. “I wouldn’t do that to you, any of you. To my parents… Kihyun saved me from what could have been and you’re right… you all are. She never loved me.” And Hyunwoo desperately wanted to believe that.

“Hyunwoo, I know it hurts - one sided love. It’s one painful mother fucker, but you will find someone new. I’m sure of it. And if not, I’ll marry you,” Hyungwon ended on a joke, but with a caring tone.

This made Hyunwoo laugh shortly, his sad eyes turning a little amused. “And who’ll marry Sera?”

The younger shrugged but Hyunwoo knew that he wasn’t as nonchalant about this topic as he wanted to seem in this very moment. “She can take care of herself. But, hyung…”

“Hm?”

“I’m top,” Hyungwon stated, openly decided about it.

Hyunwoo laughed from the bottom of his hear the statement and replied with a smug yet joking smile: “Sure you are.”

Hyunwoo slept over at Hyungwon’s that night and Sera never came back. It was strange but Hyungwon said he had received a message in the morning that she had been with Hoseok that night.

Kihyun had called all of them to family dinner at their favourite pho place they usually went to before Sera’s fights but she since there was nothing scheduled for anyone, all of them just met there.

Once everyone got their food, Kihyun opened the typical family dinner revenue and report topic.

“The stocks are looking nice, I have managed to manipulate some of the market in our favor and then right away sold the shares, it got some money and I invested further,” Changkyun began this time, giving his revenues a run down. “About the rest of the work, I need Hoseok hyung to come back to work as I am _pretty_ stuck right now.”

Everyone looked to Hoseok for explanation. “I did a small little project of mine for the past couple of days, and am in the middle of finishing it. So, only a couple more days and I’m back with you, Changkyunnie,” Hoseok explained.

“What is this project?” Minhyuk questioned.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you when I get to the end,” Hoseok assured the bar owner with a solid smile. “When it comes down to my revenue, I played around with some high flying companies and their bank accounts and managed to successfully lock about 1 million together that will leave as soon as it has an account to go to.”

Kihyun nodded and looked expectantly to Hyunwoo. “The sale of spice is going well actually. The guys said they sold everything and one even mentioned he heard of someone he sold to dying. _So,_ my guess is that someone is covering for this.”

“Okay, Min, Changkyun, Hoseok, this will be your new job. Please find out what is going on in there if you can dig it up and make it a case for later,” Kihyun said and all three of them nodded. They knew what he was talking about after all.

“I managed to accumulate about 750k in sales since the last time,” Minhyuk chewed his food while answering the silent question.

“Sera?”

“I haven’t been doing much other than some odd jobs here and there, but right now I’m doing something personal, so…” Sera turned away from everyone with a frown on her face.

“You too?” Kihyun asked confused.

“Yeah, I’m working with Hoseok on this one. Don’t worry, you’ll find out about everything soon,” she offered Kihyun a smile and he just sighed shaking his head.

“We don’t keep secrets, Sera,” Hyunwoo warned her about something she knew well about.

“We don’t? I discovered one and I am digging the root of it out. Don’t worry, seriously. As soon as I’m done, you’ll all know what this was all about. Hyungwon?” Sera looked to the doctor he kept staring at her with a deep scowl.

“Nothing new, really. The last time it was the medicine and medical equipment I managed to double sell to that bastard but I have had other occupations this month,” the doctor replied, his eyes never leaving Sera.

“Jooheonnie?” Kihyun asked finally.

Jooheon took a deep breath in. It had been a busy time for him since the last family dinner. “Well, I have been up to a lot and I am bearing good news,” he smiled at all of them, showing his dimples. “Not only I managed to triple sell the two cars I was instructed to buy and sell for Ryu Sungmoon, which in the end left me with 1.5 million extra, but I also managed to get all of us two new identities with solid bulletproof backgrounds and official documents.” Jooheon looked extremely proud of himself and all the members of the family smiled at this. “And I managed to work out 4 new shell companies - 2 in Switzerland, 1 in Belize and 1 in Puerto Rico. The bank accounts are ready to have the money deposited.”

They all smiled at Jooheon’s achievements and told him he had done a great job.

|Sera POV|

Hoseok sent her a text just before the end of the dinner. Sera quickly read over it and nodded at him.

_The House of Opera, Monday, 10PM_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think of the scars that Hyunwoo carries on his heart thanks to Hyolyn? What will happen at the House of Opera on Monday? It's probably about the business that Hoseok and Sera are currently working on, right? Isn't evil Kihyun a little scary as well as totally awesome? ^-^ As I was writing this, I could see him sipping the coffee in an expensive suit making threads to La Reina and he looked so amazing! *o*
> 
> Please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments and if you haven't yet, please leave a kudo if you like the story <3 <3
> 
> I hope to see you come back next time to find out what happens to the family ^^ But until then, I hope you stay safe and healthy with everything that is happening wherever in the world you currently are. See you next time (￣y▽￣)╭ bye bye


	12. The Message

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minhyuk deals with his past...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! And welcome back to another chapter of Little Psycho. First I would like to apologize for a much later update than what I usually do... I've struggled with a massive writer's block right now. So, I'm happy you're back here and I hope you like this chapter. And just like in the previous couple of chapters, if you're a silent reader, please voice your opinions in the comments - I love reading them and it makes me happy when I can interact with you <3 ^^
> 
> Second: warnings: there is bloody torture in this chapter (Sera's dark side is back...)

|Hyungwon POV|

“Are you going with Hoseok again?” Hyungwon asked Sera accusingly when she headed to her car after the family dinner where 2 out of 8 siblings kept secrets together rather than share them with the others like they were supposed to.

Sera gave Hyungwon a weird look. “I wasn’t planning on it. Why?”

“Because I don’t want you in my apartment as long as you’re lying to me,” Hyungwon responded mercilessly, his voice hard and uncompromising. Sera’s face changed quickly and for a couple of long moments she looked like a kicked puppy, the hurt obvious in her eyes as she stared into Hyungwon’s. The words he said to her stabbed him in the heart but there was no way he was going to take them back. They never kept secrets or lied to each other. And Hyungwon was not going to accept that now.

Sera took a shaky breath in. “Okay,” she said in a broken quiet voice, her face mirroring just how much Hyungwon’s words hurt her. His heart twisted at the sight of his woman walking to her car knowing that it was him, who hurt her and that he had done it intentionally . She never turned away from him and suddenly Hyungwon was worried about the voices that haunt her waking thoughts. He regretted his words but at the same time he didn’t. It was a strange feeling.

He climbed into the driver’s seat of his car and calmly drove to his apartment that was quiet and dark. Hyungwon thought of all the things him and Sera would be up to now had they gone to his place together.

Hyungwon decided it would be for the best if he read something, since he doubted his mind would let him sleep tonight. Before he opened his book he laid his phone close to him so that when Sera called him she got home safely he would know. He would maybe pick up, but that depended on how he would feel in the moment his phone would ring.

|Hoseok POV|

Hoseok was indeed surprised when he drove into the garage of the building he currently lived in and found Sera’s car in the spot that belonged to her flat. He just parked his not so new car (part of the cover for him) next to hers and walked over to the elevator to get up to the apartment.

He found Sera on the balcony lighting up a joint with one hand and holding her phone with Hyungwon’s contact opened in the other. Her thumb hovered over the call button but then she quickly locked the phone and set it onto the table in front of her.

“Are you not going to call Hyungwon?” Hoseok questioned her as he sat on the chair next to her reaching for the first aid box that laid next to the phone.

Sera exhaled a white cloud of smoke and Hoseok’s skilled nose smelt the weed from it - the most ‘aggressive’ weed the Ryu family was growing in the Middle East. The Jade Phoenix was a type of weed Hoseok first tried after Changkyun brought it from Kihyun - it had a very strong numbing attribute and Hoseok almost threw up from how fast and strong the high came in. And smelling the amount that Sera was smoking disturbed him because his head started spinning just from smelling it. His eyes turned to Sera, who had her eyes closed, but her face displayed an emotion he hasn’t seen on her before - _hurt._ “No.”

Her answer shocked Hoseok. She always called him. Every time she wasn’t about to go back to his place for the night, Sera was always calling with Hyungwon as soon as she got home. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” same voice sounded and the only movement Sera did was to bring the joint between her lips and take a deep hit. She held her breath as she went back to hugging her knees.

Hoseok reached for one baggie himself, careful not to pick up the Jade Phoenix, wanting to roll a joint for him. “Do you want me to call him?” he kept pressuring.

“No.”

“Why? Something happened?”

Another hit in and out. Then silence. And then Sera finally spoke in a quiet voice laced with disbelief. “So they were right all along.”

“Who?” Hosoek asked confused even more.

“Never mind,” Sera shook her head and finally looked at Hoseok. Her eyes were starting to turn ruby colour and Hoseok noticed her vision must not have been so clear anymore. She has smoked almost the whole joint in about 5 minutes. The roll was so strong the hacker really felt like he got high even just from sitting next to her. And they were sitting on the balcony, not inside.

 _Something must have happened. Why is she like this? Is she hurt?_ Hoseok’s thoughts swirled around in his mind offering all kinds of possible scenarios. Mindlessly Hoseok turned the grinder clockwise and counter-clockwise. He mixed the ground dried green-ish plant with some tobacco and rolled himself a joint with his skilled fingers. He licked the paper and closed up the small roll. He tapped the part with the filter on his watch, holding the join vertically to shake the contents of the joint a little more compact. He then lit up the joint and when the excess paper burned off and the roll was burning sufficiently he placed it between his lips and took a long, much awaited hit. Hoseok held his breath for a bit and then exhaled heavily.

Again, he looked over to Sera, who was swaying in the chair slightly from the storm the high cooked up in her head. She had mentioned that she stopped smoking heavy stuff like this because she needed to always be on her tip toes these days. “Monday, 10PM, eh?” she said, still rocking back and forth.

“Monday, 10PM,” Hoseok confirmed and exhaled the smoke in his lungs, his eyes turned to the skyline view and looked out at the rushing cars for who knew how long. When he turned around after lazily smoking just the first half of his joint, Sera was asleep in the chair, curled up in a ball. Hoseok’s heart panged at what could have hurt her this much that she needed to get herself this high to even fall asleep.

He gently lifted her up and placed her into her bed in the bedroom, leaving as quietly as possible but not before taking a quick look at her vulnerable looking face. And anger ignited in him, so he fished out his phone from his pocket as soon as he closed the door behind him, standing back on the balcony.

After only two rings the other side picked up. “ _Hyung?_ ” Hyungwon asked with a surprised voice.

“Wonnie, what happened to Sera?” his voice sounded hard and demanding.

“ _What do you mean?_ ” the younger spoke with confusion and care.

“Why is Sera hurt?” Hoseok answered with another question. “What did you do?”

“ _Why do you think it was me?_ ” Hyungwon continued in a quiet voice but Hoseok heard something in the undertone of it. He couldn’t really place what it was but it was there. The hacker was sure of it.

“Because you’re the only fucking person in the world, who has the ability to hurt her, Hyungwon,” Hoseok said in a way harsher manner than he wanted to at first, but after the sigh that came through the connection, the regrets he may have had about the tone of his voice dissipated completely.

_So Hyungwon really did something._

“ _I_ _said something_ ,” Hyungwon’s voice was weak but Hoseok knew the doctor stood his ground. He always did and never took his words back, no matter how hard or heartless they might have been. This was one of the first things he had learned about Chae Hyungwon.

“What did you say?” Hoseok continued to press on.

“ _I don’t want to talk about it, hyung_ ,” he tried to get himself out of the conversation but there was no way this hyung was going to let him off this easy.

“What. Did. You. Say?” he repeated the enquiry.

Another heavy sigh echoed over the line and a short silence fell over the connection before the younger man spoke again. “ _I said that I didn’t want her in my apartment as long as she continued to lie to me_.”

Hoseok hissed and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, he gripped the bridge of his nose and a wave of guilt spread around his gut. He felt like it was his fault for dragging Sera into this. He never meant to hurt anyone from the family, only those two mother fuckers. The family was so important to him. “Listen to me, Hyungwon, and please listen to me well,” his manner of speaking softened. “I discovered something very unpleasant and came to Sera to help me deal with it, asking her to keep it secret. She promised to keep it away from all of you only for the time being with words that we were going to tell you guys everything once it’s done. Or at least half-way done. I admit, we were a little worried that if we let it out earlier some outside factor will mess it up. Not one of the family members, but you know that in this city the fucking trees can talk sometimes,” Hoseok tried to explain it to his younger brother without necessarily giving anything away.

“ _Hyung, what are you really getting at?_ ” Hyungwon asked intrigued by what his hyung was telling him.

“I’m saying that you should trust Sera and help her with whatever is going on in her mind right now,” Hoseok kept on being cryptic.

“ _Okay, now you’re scaring me a bit, Hoseok_ ,” his voice sounded a little rushed over the phone.

“I just watched Sera smoke a pretty strong fat joint, that could have been a blunt really, of the Jade Phoenix just so she can fall asleep. You should have seen the hurt in her face as she waited for the high to numb her enough so she can fall into a dreamless slumber,” Hoseok told him and his insides tugged at him again with the memory of his younger sister. “She even said that ‘they were right’. I don’t know who ‘they’ are but she was pretty hurt by this statement she made.”

“ _Fuck_ ,” a quiet broken swear came over the line. The word was so quiet Hoseok thought at first he imagined it. “ _Hyung, I’ll come over_.”

“Okay. You know how to get in.” With these words Hoseok hung up the call and finished the rest of his joint before going back to his computer to begin working on the virus. But first he had to read a long ‘fucking_read_me_this_time.docx’ file that Changkyun sent along with it over their encrypted communication line.

Hoseok went to sleep on the couch really late, or early, whichever you want to call it. When Hyungwon came, Hoseok barely noticed him as he slipped right into the bedroom, quietly closing the door behind him.

Strangely, Hoseok didn’t need a lot of sleep and awoke to sounds of cups and cutlery in the kitchen. Before rolling over he heard a hushed conversation, which he most definitely should not have been eavesdropping on, but curiosity hadn’t gotten this cat killed yet, so…

“I told you to tell me many times,” Hyungwon said with urgency.

“Tell you what, Won? That I’m crazy and I occasionally hear voices in my head?” Sera replied irritated. “I thought it was enough to tell you once, honestly.”

“No. To tell me when they come back,” Hyungwon pressed on again.

“What does it change? I’m still crazy, am I not?” she bit back in defence.

“You’re not crazy, you’re-“

“If you say damaged,” Sera cut him off, “I will break your finger, I swear. I am a psychopath and we all know it, Won. I killed 4 assassins at the age of 8 and ever since then I have killed and tortured more people that I can confidently count. I have carved countless words into people’s skin with knives and laughed in the face of people choking me with the intention to kill more times than I can remember, just because they got irritated by my behaviour. I revel in pain and pain makes me feel alive and Minhyuk cleverly kept pointing out that was the reason I always went with the kind of one night stands I did. I am not damaged… _I am what he made me to be_ ,” the last sentence sounded very pained and Hoseok imagined it was something that stabbed Sera deep into her heart. “I am a monster. Heartless, soulless - a monster.”

There was a shuffling of clothes and movement of bodies but Hoseok didn’t dare to lift up his head, not wanting to disturb the conversation of the two. “You’re not a monster, Sera. And even if you were… you’d be my monster. And I would save you every time.” Sera sighed heavily at the words Hyungwon told her and then he continued in the small whisper: “But I’ve offered you more than enough times that I can show you what you really deserve in bed.”

Hoseok then heard Sera’s muffled laugh and raised his head to find the two hugging each other close, Sera’s face hidden in Hyungwon’s chest and his chin resting on the top of her head with his eyes closed.

|Sera POV|

Sera wondered what people go do to the House of Opera on Mondays, but apparently there was an exclusive ‘public’ final rehearsal of the newest show and tickets were so limited that people literally paid journalists to leave their spots and get in themselves. These ‘people’ also included the two sick bastards that Sera was hunting.

She was sitting in a black SUV that she had borrowed from Hyunwoo for her ‘personal project’. He was still upset, like everyone else that Hoseok and Sera wouldn’t share their secret with the rest of them.

Her hand rested on the box of tranquilizers that she brought with her to put them to temporary sleep. It had been a pain in the ass to get them from Hyungwon as he demanded to know what she needed them for. Sera had to swear to tell him the next time they meet. She knew that the next time they meet she’d also ask for some other substances for her new ‘toys’.

Oh, she hadn’t ‘played’ with anyone in almost a year and she had to admit that the monster in her, that had been peacefully dormant since the last time, was wide awake and excited for what was to come. She realized that deep inside this was probably wrong and she shouldn’t feel like this, but she did.

It would have been so much easier had Hyunwoo or Jooheon been with her, but instead there was Hoseok, to whom she had to explain in detail where to stab the injection and how quickly the person would go down. But on the other hand, with Hoseok she could do it really comfortably in the parking garage where the sadistic couple parked their car because Hoseok simply hacked into the security circuit and looped a calm image while they load these two into the trunk of the SUV.

“Here we go,” Sera chimed to Hoseok just a split second before she opened the car door and got out, followed by bravely looking Hoseok. She really never thought he would be there with her, especially after the reaction he had to the spice incident.

The two figures dressed in black, one petite and one tall and muscular, quickly approached the couple in their early 60s that were only a couple of meters away from their car. “Excuse me,” Sera called out. “Are you Park Haein and Jung Sanghyuk?” She knew they were and as the woman, Haein, nodded with a foolish smile Sera jumped closer to her and Hoseok grabbed the man, both of them promptly injecting the two with the clear liquid in the syringes, Sera skillfully and Hoseok successfully, albeit a little clumsily. Before the woman fell into the drug induced slumber Sera whispered to her maliciously: “You’re gonna wish you weren’t.”

The woman’s body went limp in Sera’s grip and she mercilessly dropped the older woman to the concrete at her feet, turning her head to Hoseok, who looked partially distressed, but his face didn’t show much emotion, Sera smiled at this with a pleased feeling. Deep down he was more like them than he was willing to admit - he would do anything for his family.

“Cool, let’s load them up and get going,” Sera sighed not looking forward to hauling the woman’s body into the trunk of the SUV - that was why she enjoyed having Hyunwoo with her when the job was to secure a person’s unwilling transport.

“I’ll take them both, don’t worry,” Hoseok said with a steeled up voice and Sera nodded gratefully.

After Hoseok not so gently deposited the two limp bodies into the trunk of the black SUV, he disabled the loop on the CCTVs and they left the parking garage.

“Hoseok,” Sera spoke to him and he got slightly startled from voice speaking to him. He turned to her and Sera immediately knew what his train of thoughts had been. He was most definitely doubting his decision to participate hands on. “Two things.”

“Hm?”

“One: I will need to speak to Hyungwon, therefore I will have to tell him what we’re doing, otherwise he will never give me what I want. Are you okay with me sharing it with him? If I ask him to keep quiet he will not tell anyone anything,” Sera began and Hoseok nodded half-absent minded. “And two: are you _hella_ sure you want to do this with me? Because I can do it alone. Won’t be the first one and I’m almost sure it won’t be the last one, either. This stuff can get fairly bloody and your whole view of me might change forever. You might not be able to stomach this thing, Seokie.” Her manner of speaking was gentle and considerate and Hoseok looked like he was seriously thinking over what she had just offered.

“Tell Hyungwon and uh… I think… I will sit it out. Not that my opinion about you would change, but my stomach is already turning and nothing has happened, yet,” Hoseok replied and when Sera glanced over at him, his face was rather pale and his eyes were a little glassy.

“Okay. I’ll drop you off at your place and will take care of everything else.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to help you with them?”

“Nah. You don’t want to see that room.”

“Okay. Yeah… sure,” but he sounded anything but.

Sera checked her watch, it’s been 5 hours since the couple had been drugged, so she still had about 3 hours before the drug would start wearing out. And even if it wore out earlier they were securely tied up in the room where she had spent a good part of her teenage hood. The concrete room with no windows was damp and it had walls and floors stained with blood, it reeked of pain and torture. She hated that room to the marrow of her bones, but returned there every time she needed to interrogate someone or make someone get the message she was trying to relate. It was the room where the monster that slept inside of her would come out.

It was just past 3AM and she was sitting in the living room of Hyungwon’s apartment, sliding through the contact list of her one night stands, because the only thing that always made the monster go back to sleep after an operation, interrogation or simple explanation of rules to people, was sex. But none of the names on her list ever stood out to her anymore. Interestingly enough last time when she got away from Ming Zhan, just cuddling Hyungwon to sleep had been enough to make the beast sleep.

When she arrived in her current home, Hyungwon had already been asleep and she just settled on the couch, contemplating her next steps. That beast was already purring inside of her at images settling in her mind of what she was going to do to them.

The door of Hyungwon’s bedroom clicked open and a sleepy tall man walked into the living room. The moment he noticed Sera he changed the direction in which he was walking changed abruptly and instead of to the kitchen he walked over to the couch. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you come to bed?” When Hyungwon reached her, he kissed the top of her head gingerly and Sera leaned into his touch. Hyungwon sat next to Sera on the couch and gently manoeuvred her onto his lap, hugging her close to him. “What is going on?”

“Wonnie, is it possible to get some curare from you?” she asked in a low voice, sounding almost like a child asking for a piece of candy.

“I have some stored in my office. What do you need it for? You promised to tell me what is going on,” Hyungwon reminded her with a gentle, caring voice.

“Do you remember that one time Kihyun tried to force Minhyuk to bring him to his sources?”

“Yes.”

“Hoseok found out why Minhyukie hates them so much…” Sera started to tell the painful story in a low voice. Hyungwon’s grip around her tightened and she felt the anger flow through him in tidal waves. When Sera finished the explanation for her need of the South American originated poison, she added one last sentence: “I’m sorry we kept it from you, but now you know why I need the curare.”

“I see,” Hyungwon said and then fell silent, the thoughts in his head swirling around like a hurricane and only after a couple of minutes he broke the silence. “I can give you something stronger that curare.”

“I don’t want stronger. I want them to suffer until the end. I want them to feel the helpless inability to do anything when the paralysis takes over their diaphragm,” she shook her head in a small slow motion and when Hyungwon looked at her his thoughts immediately went to how had he been deaf he’d think she was talking about not wanting to drink tea in the morning but coffee. To him she looked like an innocent child seated in his lap like this, hugged by him like this. Had she not been talking about the poison that in sufficient dose causes asphyxiation of the diaphragm of the victim, therefore disabling them from breathing, he would say that she was just as innocent as she looked like.

“Okay. Can I go see Minhyuk in the morning about his scars?” Hyungwon asked thinking about his slightly older brother, who seemed like he never had a bother in the world.

“Of course.”

“Will you come to bed now?” Hyungwon kissed the top of Sera’s cheek once and then moved for another gentle touch with his lips lower, to the corner of her mouth.

Sera only hummed in agreement, when a sudden thought crossed her mind. Hyungwon never kissed her on the lips, and neither did she to him. When they kissed each other’s cheeks, the closest they ever got was just the corner of the lips where the cheek met the lips. Out of a sudden she wanted to feel his plump soft lips against hers, but as he lifted her effortlessly into his arms and carried her to the bedroom she shook off the thought and leaned into Hyungwon’s body.

“I’ll wake you up in 2 hours,” he told her when he laid her on her side of (now) their bed.

When Sera opened the door to the damp and badly smelling concrete room, the two people tied to their uncomfortable chairs were starting to stir awake from the sedative they have been given.

And something dark stirred inside Sera, too.

“Wakey, wakey, we’re about to have some fun,” she said with an evil tone to her voice and walked over to the man to fully jolt him awake.

|Hyungwon POV|

Hyungwon hated seeing Sera go in the early morning, but he knew it was for the family no matter how much he despised that beast that slept inside of her. However, he also had business with Minhyuk, whom he called to meet him as early as possible in the bar.

Arriving at the bar, the rock music was already on and the tall doctor went straight to the bar where the bar owner was making both of them coffee.

“Wonnie, is something wrong? Why is your face so grim? Did something happen to my girl?” Minhyuk greeted him with confusion in his face upon seeing Hyungwon’s dark expression.

And since Minhyuk went straight to the topic at hand, so did Hyungwon. “Min, let me see your forearms.”

The happy morning bounce of Minhyuk was gone the second those words came out of Hyungwon’s mouth. He subconsciously tried to hide his arms before the younger. “What?”

“Show me your forearms. I want to see if there is anything I can do about the new scars. The old ones are most likely way too old to be dealt with,” Hyungwon repeated his request or the older.

“How do you know?” Minhyuk asked shakily.

“I just know.”

“Did Hoseok tell you?” Minhyuk actually looked hurt by the possibility it could have been the older hacker, who told on him.

“No, he didn’t,” Hyungwon shook his head.

“Then who?”

“Someone, who cares about you very much,” Hyungwon stepped closer to Minhyuk.

“How does my angel know about this?” Minhyuk understood immediately and there was pain in his eyes from the realization.

“Hoseok told her. And together they got those two sadistic monsters into the concrete cube,” Hyungwon said even though Sera begged him not to say anything. There were no secrets in the family and that was a rule Hyungwon was not willing to break. He would do everything for Sera, so technically he was just making her later life easier by telling something to someone.

Minhyuk’s breathing quickened and his vision crossed. He fell to the floor and Hyungwon just about caught his head before it could hit the marble floor at their feet. He positioned Minhyuk’s head so that it laid on his lap and he could stroke the top of his head and his hair gently.

It took a while for Minhyuk to calm down from whatever panic attack he went through but Hyungwon held him all throughout the process, raking his fingers through the elder’s hair in a calming manner. He rocked back and forth a little bit when he noticed the motion had a soothing effect on Minhyuk. Minhyuk held onto Hyungwon as they now sat in silence, he moved his body to hug the tall doctor and only a couple of moment later Hyungwon felt the small tremors run through the bar owner’s body as he cried in his younger brother’s arms.

 _God, this is so painful. I hate to see Minhyuk cry_ , Hyungwon thought to himself and sniffled a little bit, his gut twisted from grief he felt for the happy vitamin of his family.

Hyungwon didn’t know for how long they sat there but it must have been a good half hour before Minhyuk pulled away from the younger doctor wiping his cheeks and rubbing his red puffy eyes in hope to make them feel less like they have been scraped with sandpaper. “What is she going to do to them?”

“Curare,” Hyungwon replied simply and Minhyuk nodded in acknowledgment. He had been acquainted with that poison before. “But before…”

“I know. She won’t let them off easy…” Minhyuk sighed but there was a like a hint of content in the sigh. “Can you call her to ask to tell me when she’s in the last stage with them?”

“Why don’t you call her yourself?” Hyungwon asked confused.

“’Cause I don’t think I can talk to anyone right now. I need to get some things straight in my head,” Minhyuk told him with a strong sure attitude and Hyungwon thought he actually looked like the situation that was now happening made him happy. And that in turn made Hyungwon contently smile at his older brother.

“Min, you know you could have told any one of us.”

“I needed them, Hyungwon. I needed anything they might have known. I didn’t go there all that often in the last couple of years, nevertheless… I needed to have them in the back, just in case I was not able to dig something up myself. But thinking about it now… I really should have told you earlier,” Minhyuk admitted with a heavy heart.

“Yeah. Yeah, you should have,” Hyungwon grabbed Minhyuk’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

|Sera POV|

The two people seated in two very uncomfortable chairs in front of Sera had a slightly terrified look on their face. Sera almost felt sorry for them, except she didn’t at all. “Do you know who I am?”

The woman inhaled shakily but didn’t get a word out, so Sera turned her eyes to her husband expectantly. “Ryu Sera.”

“Yep. And do you know why you’re in this… concrete…cubicle… room with without windows?” she asked trying to describe the torture room without giving too much away even though the most likely knew where they were and what was going to happen to them. If they didn’t then they were really dumb.

“No,” the wife replied, her voice unstable. “Let us go.”

Sera laughed full hearted before walking up to the woman a grabbing her harshly by the jaw, squeezing her as much as possible. “Did no one teach you the magical word _‘please’_?” Just as the woman was about to say ‘please’, Sera released her grip and pushed the woman’s head to the side. “But even if you two beg, it’s not going to happen. Let me tell you what _is_ going to happen,” Sera made a dramatic pause changing her stance again and her face turned dark as she looked at both of them in dead silence, “the two of you will regret ever hurting Lee Minhyuk for the rest of your miserable lives,” she told them and saw the blood turn cold in the man and the woman’s face went completely white from fear. Then she added in a more cheerful voice. “Also don’t worry… the end of your lives isn’t _that_ far away.”

“No, please,” the woman cried.

“Did I ask you anything?” Sera turned to the woman harshly and shushed her with her stare. The cry and fear never left the woman’s face. Then she turned and walked over to a small table where she had knives and scalpels laid out along with some salty water, lemon juice and 99% alcohol. She picked up a ritual looking knife with a sharp tip but a dull-ish blade, which would only cut through skin when pushed enough and at a good angle. The knife left very painful marks. Sera decided to go strong from the beginning, after all she didn’t have much time for games since there was so much work to be done now.

Sera strolled leisurely to the husband still tied up on his chair, twirling the knife around in her hand, giving them a good show of the blade. “I heard that you guys love watching people cut themselves, because you love seeing their blood come out of the skin, but why is you skin so white and scar-less? I think that needs to be fixed,” she said while stepping around to the back of the chair and untying the husbands hands. He was surprised at this, but he didn’t struggle against Sera or try to fight her.

 _I see, they know me and they know fighting me is pointless,_ Sera thought gratefully to herself.

“And so, you, Mister, are going to carve the word ‘love’ into your wife’s forearm with this beautiful knife in nice big letters.”

His face looked defiant but he still didn’t say a word, on the other hand his wife cried again: “No, please, no. Please!”

“Oh, okay,” she grinned. “You can do it yourself.” The offer was given and the woman suddenly shut up and just desperately shook her head. “Why are you shaking you head? There’s only option a or option b. And if you don’t do it now, I’ll beat her into a bloody pulp before you do,” she warned the husband and stepped back to enjoy the show. “And make sure the letters are nice and big. Because if I can’t see them all the way from here, you’ll have to do it again,” calling out from the table with the instruments, Sera smiled evilly at the couple. The woman was shaking from fear of what was going to happen and the man had the most apologetic of faces.

“Please, don’t. Don’t do this, please,” the woman kept begging and begging and that triggered Sera more than anything.

“Let me ask you… when you made Minhyuk do this in front of you, did he ever beg you to stop this? To not do that to him?” she asked in an interested curious voice laced with malicious intentions. It was one of the sickest voices you could ever imagine. “No, no… you keep your mouth shut,” she said to the wife, “your husband answers because he seems to still have some brains in that head.”

The man took a breath in and in a quiet but strong voice answered. “The first couple of times.”

“And did you ever let him stop?”

“Never.”

“So why should I let you stop?” Sera saw the man swallow dryly at the truth of her words. “I see no reason for me to not do this, it’s just that the positions are switched… and suddenly it’s wrong to you? No, it’s the same logic, but this time I’m watching. So go ahead… _entertain me_.”

The man looked back to his spouse, who was shaking her head again silently begging her husband not to cut her forearm. “Don’t cry.”

At this the woman only cried harder and louder and Sera rolled her eyes. “Shut up! Or I’ll stuff your mouth with something!” she warned her annoyed beyond. She had never had anyone so whiny in this room and the only thing it would actually achieve was that they would be dead sooner rather than later.

Sera and the man haven’t said a word while he was carving the word into his wife’s forearm as she squirmed with pain, eyes tightly shut but tears still coming out of them. Sera felt nothing… no rush, no thrill, no high. So when the man was done and dropped the knife to the concrete floor with a clang, she couldn’t help but ask. “I’m curious, please tell me what kind of a high this gave you? Was is sexual? Or something like when you get high of a drug?”

Silence. Both of them said nothing.

“ _Tsk._ Okay, we’re not playing this game like this,” she faked a laugh but it sounded so off. “In this room, we play by my rules and my rules only, which means that you do whatever the fucking hell I tell you to do… including answering my fucking questions.” Sera waited for a moment to emphasize the gravity of the rule. “Okay, so, you were going to tell me…”

Sera’s phone rang. She took a glance at, who was calling her and quickly picked up. “Won?”

“ _Hi. Minhyuk is asking if you can call him over to the last stage?_ ”

“Of course. Is he okay?” Sera’s voice sounded so different from the one she used with the people that were in the room with her. The man lifted his head at this, eyeing Sera strangely, but hastily lowered his gaze when Sera shot him a ‘don’t you even fucking dare’ look.

“ _He’s better, he called all of us to the bar tonight. So maybe you should be done by then_ ,” Hyungwon suggest.

“I will, these guys aren’t that much of a fun any way. Actually, if you’re with Min now, you can tell him to come over. I’m bored already and we have just began. I even thought of being the Tooth Fairy, but I’m just like _ugh_ …” she told Hyungwon softly, trying to act a little cute, even though she was not supposed to do that in front of anyone she wanted information from, but then again these two would be dead soon, so why bother really.

“ _Aww, baby_ ,” Hyungwon used the pet name for Sera for the first time in years and something inside of her went jelly. She loved when he called her pet names, but always protested because there was no way she could ever let him get close enough to see the monster inside of her, even though he knew about it very well. It was just different - to know about it and to actually see it. “ _I’ll make it up to you?_ ”

“I kinda wanna say ‘yes’, kinda ‘no’.”

“ _Decide later. I’m going to speak to Min_.”

“Mmm, bye,” she hung up and turned back to the couple on the floor in front of her and said cheerfully. “Okay, so while we wait for another person to join us, we’re gonna play another game.”

The look on Park Haein’s face was priceless - fear, pain, rejection, crying, begging. Everything was so visible on her face.

Minhyuk came couple of hours later, at about 4PM. In the mean time, the woman had passed out multiple times due to the rules of Sera’s games and she was brutally woken up by methods Sera had learned in the past. The man was ever so stoic and answered all of Sera’ questions with whatever the information he had. The games included cutting a flat piece of flesh of and squirting lemon juice into the wound or rubbing salt into the wounds. However, Sera never got her hands dirty. They all did it themselves. It was not much fun, but a good way to pass time while she waited for Minhyuk.

Her older brother arrived with a text, because even if he knocked on the door, nothing would be heard. Sera went to open the door for him and right in the door, she hugged him close, seeking the solace his embrace provided. She really felt like a little girl now that Minhyuk was with her. After a long moment they both let go of each other and Minhyuk softly kissed Sera’s cheek as per usual. Then the two walked over to the table with instruments, most bloody and this point, and looked at the couple.

“It’s funny…” Minhyuk stood little taller while talking to the couple. “It’s funny that now that the roles are reversed, I feel nothing, well maybe except disgust.” Minhyuk laughed shortly, the afore mentioned disgust in his voice was very obvious. “I don’t even want you to suffer anymore, even though the only thing that ever got me through those fucking sessions with you was the image of you on this floor, cut up, bloodied and with cried out eyes,” he snickered. “But now, I just can’t bring myself to give a fuck anymore.”

“So you wanna kill them now?” Sera asked Minhyuk softly.

“I have no use for them,” Minhyuk replied in as a matter of fact way.

“Okay,” she turned around and grabbed two identical hunters’ knives and a large vial, where the curare she got from Hyungwon was stored. She methodically and with the utmost precision rubbed the curare on the blades of both knives and then gave them both to Minhyuk.

“Do you know the poison called curare?” Minhyuk question the couple on the floor as he slowly walked over to them. “It is a poison originating in South America, it paralyzes you and if you give your prey enough poison if will paralyze it to the point where it stops breathing and that is exactly what is going to happen to you.” He handed one knife to each person and stood tall over them, looking down.

“What are you waiting for? We’re not going to do it for you.” Sera laughed from the back and those two hesitating.

The man made a deep gash on the top of his thigh, writhing in pain from having to drag the knife through his own flesh and the woman only cried as she cut her wrists and then weakly proceeded to push the knife into her stomach.

Not too long after, two out of four lives in the room started to fade away as Minhyuk and Sera watched the two begin to suffocate. Minhyuk laid his arm over Sera’s shoulder and pulled her closer to him. He leaned in and whispered into Sera’s ear: “Thank you, angel.”

Sera looked up at Minhyuk and smiled the smile she only held in stash for him - the cute little sister smile. “I’ll get some guys to clean up properly.”

Minhyuk nodded, knowing that ‘clean up properly’ meant Sera will get the best of her men, to not only dispose of the bodies, but make it seem these two weren’t dead, that they just left the country or died in a tragic accident. This was a part of her job for Ryu Sungmoon and no one would ever dare to question her or her practices within the Ryu family. After all, she was an authority that no one dared to play with. “Let’s go to the bar,” Minhyuk smiled at Sera too and led her out of the room to go meet with the rest of their family, because 4 people were still in the dark about what was happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how was it?  
> Are you happy that Hoseok couldn't stomach it at the end? What do you think about Hyungwon's snap towards Sera and how they reconnected after the small 'fight' they had? What about the voices in her head and how Hyungwon reacted to Hoseok telling him about them? How's Sera's dark side? What are your feelings about Minhyuk closing the painful chapter of his past?
> 
> I hope you liked the chapter and please, please share your thoughts and opinions with me in the comments, I love to read them and interact with you ^^ <3
> 
> Hope to see you next time for another chapter, but until then... please stay safe wherever in the world you are and take care of yourselves in these crazy times! See you next time (～￣▽￣)～ bye bye <3


	13. The Scolding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jooheon asks for a small favor from Hyunwoo...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hi.... I'm sorry for the later update, but I've had a lot going on in my mind and I'm still a little stuck in my block of Little Psycho, plus I just want it to be good, so... 😔
> 
> Nevertheless, in today's chapter we finally get to know Jooheon's story and why he joined the family, so I hope you like the chapter and happy reading! 😊

|Hyunwoo POV|

When the family got together in the bar, the shit went down quickly.

Hyunwoo, as the oldest brother, ended up scolding everyone.

Minhyuk got the shit first. He got scolded for not telling anyone what had been going on for years, for keeping the scars away from Hyungwon’s treatment and therefore ending up with ugly white slashes across his beautiful porcelain skin. Minhyuk said he was sorry, but if he had the choice he would keep it secret again, since the information he got out of them go them so far. So in the end, he wasn’t all that sorry. And Hyunwoo scolded him again for that too.

Hoseok was second. He got a taste of Hyunwoo’s anger for not telling the family when he found out about Minhyuk’s problem. Upon protesting by saying he had promised to keep a secret, Hyunwoo got even angrier replying that this was what family was for in the first place. That we were here for each other no matter fucking what and these are not things that should have been kept secret. Hoseok apologized to Hyunwoo many times, but the oldest just wasn’t having it.

Sera was next in line. She got an earful of Hyunwoo’s words of how wrong it was to keep Minhyuk’s and Hoseok’s secrets going and not being the responsible little sister she should have been, but instead, like always she would take everything into her own hands rather than ask for help. Hyunwoo had so much to say to her, he was so angry at the girl. Hell, she and Kihyun had been the first to tell them that the family never kept secrets about anything and there she fucking went breaking it like it was nothing. She didn’t even fucking say she was sorry. She just asked what the fuck would Hyunwoo do in her place, but her eldest brother quickly shut her up by saying this whole thing was not about him, was it?

Hyungwon was sitting tensed up beside the woman he loved waiting for his round of scolding. Hyunwoo fumed at the doctor for being so stupid he would actually let Sera and Hoseok go do such a stupid stunt as kidnapping someone like those two, who weren’t an official part of any underground family or cartel. Hyungwon tried to defend himself by saying that he did go to Minhyuk to confront him about it, which eventually led Minhyuk to tell the family, but Hyunwoo’s flaming anger only shut this pointless defence down by saying he shouldn’t have given Sera any fucking curare and most definitely should have called Hyunwoo right then, when Sera told him everything. Hyungwon didn’t say a word of apology because as he said, he had felt no regret, he would have done it again if Sera only asked him to.

Kihyun, unbeknownst to what was lying in the very, very near future for him, was grinning partially amused by his siblings getting scolded and partially amused by fuming Hyunwoo. However the grin froze and disappeared with the speed of light when Hyunwoo turned to him with the fifth scolding. He got shit for not being able to figure this shit out, while he was supposed to be the fucking brain of everything. He was Sera’s and Minhyuk’s first brother and he should have fucking known something had been going on with the bar owner this whole entire time - like wasn’t that what he was there for to begin with? Kihyun lowered his eyes to the floor and apologized in a low voice. And that was the first apology of the night that Hyunwoo accepted.

Changkyun at this point of the evening knew he was gonna get shit for _something_ , whether he had been involved or not, because the eldest brother of his family looked nowhere near being done. So the head of operations for the Ryu family picked on the youngest for not fucking figuring out what was going on with Hoseok, since he had managed to keep that away from everyone for about a week. Changkyun tried to argue that the two didn’t live together anymore, so he wasn’t present with Hoseok all the time, so that was probably why he hadn’t noticed something was wrong. And of course, this was not an excuse for Hyunwoo, who only continued his scolding by saying that he should’ve definitely moved out of Kihyun’s apartment because it is obviously making his mind clouded when it came to family matters, which was not true and everyone knew that, including Hyunwoo, but the oldest was just so fucking angry, so everyone just understood.

Jooheon, really didn’t know why Hyunwoo even looked at him, when he had been kind of away on business related things, therefore he couldn’t have been close with anyone, but he too got his face rubbed in him being distant. Hyunwoo had known him for years and knew how dedicated Lee Jooheon was to something he loved. Jooheon knew, he was just getting scolded so that he didn’t feel left out and so the others didn’t have something to envy, so he acknowledged Hyunwoo’s words and apologized for not being there for his family, while he ran business. That was the second apology of the night that Hyunwoo accepted.

And finally, Hyunwoo scolded himself for not being a better brother to Minhyuk, for not seeing something he should have seen a long time ago and that he should have done something about it. He blamed himself for letting Hoseok stain his pure soul by what he had planned, for his soft heart slowly hardening to the level of theirs. He apologized to both of the men, his brothers. Then he gave himself shit for not being there with Sera, even though he very well knew that she could have handled it on her own, but he just didn’t want her to have to go through it alone. He thanked Hyungwon for always being their healer, their human in times when they all needed a little bit of a human touch. Then he proceed to apologize to Kihyun for his harsh words to the younger, saying he had led them so well with his intellect and he couldn’t be more grateful for how smart he was. Hyunwoo also said he was sorry to Changkyun, telling him it hadn’t been his fault that he didn’t see what was going on with Hoseok and that he should stay with Kihyun, since both of them look so much happier and more content these days. Lastly, he smiled at Jooheon and the younger just nodded and stopped his older brother from even uttering a word. Jooheon said he knew what the older wanted to say and that it wasn’t necessary.

Then silence has spread over the family, only to be broken by Kihyun’s and Sera’s heartfelt laughter, which Minhyuk and Hoseok gladly joined in on. They all, all 8 of them, laughed like there was no tomorrow, because something felt so free in them in that very moment. No one could describe it, for there were no words for it. Just random feelings.

Since Hyunwoo arrived at the bar with Jooheon after their usual rounds, the younger drove him back in the direction of the older brother’s place.

When he stopped under the apartment building, Hyunwoo felt like the silence was a little too heavy. “Joo, what is going on?”

“Hyung,” Jooheon sighed with a sad expression. “Tomorrow is my parents’ death anniversary… would you… go to the cemetery with me, please?”

Hyunwoo reached across from his passenger seat in Jooheon Mustang Shelby to grab at Jooheon’s nape of the neck and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Of course, Joo.”

“See you tomorrow then, hyung,” Jooheon tried to give him a smile but it looked sad.

“Yeah, see you tomorrow,” Hyunwoo didn’t want to make it any harder on the younger so he just decided to go with the flow of the situation.

Jooheon held his parents on a high pedestal. And righteously so. Both his parents worked very hard before Jooheon was born. They started an honest pharmaceutical company that started with one single shop where only they worked when his older sister was born hoping they could make a decent living for the three of them. They didn’t expect to branch out from that one small family run shop into hundreds of successful pharmacy stores across the whole country. The Lees were even making some of their own medicine with their knowledge and skills honed during their university years. Their oldest daughter was 6 when a little boy with the name Jooheon was born. The three of them showered their youngest family member with so much love and Jooheon grew up in a happy, loving and caring household and he never craved for anything for there was always enough of everything in the Lee family. With his great character Jooheon also made a lot of friends, one of whom was Hyunwoo way back in the day when both of them had people they called parents. Jooheon was 14 when his sister moved to the states to study at university and when he was 15, the time came when Ryu Sungmoon got greedy. The sick bastard wanted the Lees’ family business because it was successful and he offered a lot of money for it, but Jooheon’s parents refused with the words that it would have been like giving away one of their children. Ryu Sungmoon being the spoiled piece of shit he still was, took what he wanted leaving behind Mr. and Mrs. Lee dead on the floor of their living room, their precious papers for their company taken and masterly falsified to declare that now everything belonged to Ryu Sungmoon as a gift. But Jooheon was smart enough to figure everything on his own, swearing he would get revenge. He tried calling his sister, only to find out his noona died in a car ‘accident’ while on her way to the airport to come back home. The 15 year old Lee Jooheon knew he had to disappear and get off the radar before Ryun Sungmoon found him. With his previous interest in cars and auto-mechanics, he found himself working his ass off in a car shop at 16 and making money in illegal car races before he could even get a driver’s licence by law and other illegal business. Couple of years and a lot of digging around later, he got a call from someone called Son Hyunwoo saying he might have a job for him since he needed a fast and safe driver for something Jooheon shouldn’t ask about. The name sounded awfully familiar and when the tall man appeared in the car shop one day, Jooheon recognized him and took the jobs Hyunwoo would occasionally give him, since they paid pretty well. Only maybe 2 years into doing odd jobs for Hyunwoo, Jooheon found out that Hyunwoo was a part of the Ryu family, so he asked Hyunwoo what brought him there. Hyunwoo replied truthfully - that he wanted revenge on Ryu Sungmoon for taking him away from his parents and killing them and that he was already working on it. So Jooheon told the older the truth as well. Couple of months later, he found himself sitting opposite Ryu Sera in a fighters’ octagon being asked what family meant to him.

And Hyunwoo was so happy, he could call Jooheon his family.

|Hyungwon POV|

Hyungwon’s Tesla was always so quiet and it got on Sera’s nerves and every single time she got into his car and she didn’t forget to voice her thoughts on his choice of a car. Every time he would scoff or snicker, sometimes just smile.

“Won,” Sera said in a small voice as he entered the underground garage of his apartment building.

“Hm?”

“I can’t stay at your place tonight,” she admitted heavily.

Hyungwon’s heart dropped at his love’s words but still he asked as nonchalantly as he could: “Why?”

“I got personal business,” she replied.

 _Right,_ he thought to himself, knowing well what she meant, but something in him raged more than ever before. Something inside of him kept yelling to not let her go wherever she thought she needed to go tonight.

“I’m just going to grab my keys and stuff,” she told him as she parked on his spot and got out of the car, closing the door.

Hyungwon remained in the car for a moment longer while he let out a frustrated groan. His frustration was so think one could cut it with a knife. But no, not this time. He wasn’t just going to let her slip through his fingers again like he had let it happen so many times before.

He grabbed his bag from the back seat and after getting out of the car walked over to the elevator where Sera was waiting for him. The ride in the elevator was quiet and too short for once, when Hyungwon just needed to think. He unlocked the door to his spacious apartment that was now decorated by Sera’s things lying around and he would be a big fat liar if he said he didn’t like that.

She walked over to where she had left the keys for her apartment and almost quickly and without a word headed back to the front door, but Hyungwon blocked the entrance to the hallway with his body.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he gently laid a hand on her cheek and her face softened as she leaned in, expecting a soft and caring kiss on the cheek as a form of goodbye for the night.

But what happened was that finally, after about 10 years, Hyungwon pressed his soft lips gingerly over Sera’s own, holding her face ever so gently with his palms. Truth be told, he wasn’t expecting much, but when Sera reached for the nape of his neck and rested her hand there, his world fell apart. Happiness exploded in Hyungwon like a firework display. Hyungwon lightly pressed his body closer to Sera’s while his lips moved to focus on her bottom lip, grazing it lovingly with his teeth. All of his movements were slow but not cautious, he just wanted to savour every single moment of this because he was still worried he would have to let go.

 _No. I’m not letting go for fuck’s sake,_ Hyungwon got angry at himself for worrying about stupid stuff.

When Sera moaned quietly into Hyungwon’s mouth, he licked over the bottom lip and her tongue touched his. Slowly, tenderly, lovingly they kissed there at the entrance to the hallway for long minutes, never tearing away from each other, exploring each other at their own pace and savouring every single affectionate motion, caress and kiss.

Finally, Hyungwon tore himself from Sera’s lips only to gently turn her head to the side and kiss her below her ear on the neck, sucking on the soft skin there ever so gently. Sera’s hand that still rested on the nape of Hyungwon’s neck was now playing the short hair on the back of his neck. The other hand was on the small of his back lightly pressing their bodies together.

Another soft moan, which sounded like God’s music to Hyungwon’s ears, escaped Sera’s lips when Hyungwon gently bit down on the skin of her neck. He pulled away and looked into Sera’s eyes and once again he saw stars in the eyes of his beloved woman. “Don’t go, baby,” he whispered against her lips as he leaned in to kiss Sera’s soft full lips again.

After another long gentle kiss, Sera was the one to pull away only to reply to Hyungwon in an equally hushed voice. “Okay.”

Hyungwon lifted Sera’s body off the ground, which he knew would amuse Hyunwoo and Hoseok - because like how come someone as slim as Hyungwon had the strength to lift another person? But this was Sera - a girl of 5’2” who weighed about 100 pounds, so how could he not lift her petite body, when it was something he had wanted to do for the past 10 years.

She wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked them to his bedroom, where they have slept on the same bed for so many nights now, just like that - next to each other, hugging. Sera made gentle kisses just below Hyungwon’s jaw as he carried her.

Laying his girl caringly onto the bed, he pulled away again, one hand going down Sera’s clothed side slowly, enjoying the touch he was finally allowed to make. She let her hands roam over his back and the firm abs she had had the chance to see before at an equally slow pace. When Hyungwon’s finger slipped under the material of her t-shirt, she leaned into his touch obviously craving for more and Hyungwon couldn’t wait to get more himself, but first he really wanted to show her just how much she was worth, slowly and lovingly. She was worth making love to with sanity, not fucking mindlessly not caring about any consequences. She was now his and he wanted to make sure she only saw him from now on, because Hyungwon had only seen her during all of these years.

“Hyungwon,” she gasped with lust as Hyungwon’s fingers caressed the soft skin just above the cup of her bra. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. She loved him as much as he loved her.

The next moment Sera was shirtless and Hyungwon didn’t hesitate to take off the clothing that covered his upper body too just to feel their skins touching, sharing their body heat. They slowly touched, caressed, kissed and stroked for a long time in the quiet room that was occasionally filled with a moan, gasp or a lustful sigh. And Hyungwon couldn’t hold on for any longer, his hard length ached whenever he brushed over Sera’s thigh or she slowly ground against his hips. He placed his hand over Sera’s jeans’ opening and ever so slowly took them off, leaving her in black underwear.

He ran his hand over the soft creamy inside of her thigh and rested his hand against her core. His mind erupted like a volcano of ecstasy and desire when he found the black piece of fabric soaked. Sera moaned his name loudly arching her back.

“Shh, baby,” he murmured. “Let me show you just how much you’re worth.” He continued in his slow sensual motions and ignored his aching hard member twitching every time he kissed her flat and firm stomach on his way down. Slowly dragging the underwear off, Hyungwon’s nose was hit by the intoxicating smell of sex. He kissed her onto her most intimate part and when he tasted her he thought that this was how ambrosia, the mythical food of Greek Gods, must taste like.

“Won, please,” she moaned again and he couldn’t get over the fact of how much he loved to hear his name being let out of those lips. But Hyungwon said nothing, just continued with soft and sweet love making to the woman he loved more than beyond.

Hyungwon woke up in the middle of the night and found both himself and Sera naked. She was pressed against his chest with her back and his mind flew to memories of just a couple hours ago that felt like an absolute dream. He smiled and his insides clenched at the hope that this wouldn’t only be a one night thing. He kissed the crown of her head and stroked his hand over her short dark hair, in the motion he also pulled the strands out of her face and behind her ear. She was beautiful and maybe the people would argue with him on this matter but he didn’t care. She was his, he loved her and that was the only thing he cared about, that made her the most beautiful woman in his world.

Before Hyungwon fell back asleep his thoughts wandered to all those doctors and professors he talked to about Sera’s conscience and suddenly everything became clear to him - both of them didn’t need her conscience to come back, because she never lost it in the first place - she just directed it at people she cared about. And when this revelation hit him, he realized he was exactly the same.

He fell asleep again fast, holding her a little bit tighter.

The morning came a little too fast and Hyungwon woke up alone in his bed and panic settled in him for couple of seconds before he heard the sound of water running from his bathroom. He sighed in relief and got out of his bed to satisfy his curiosity in whether or not this was a onetime thing or not.

Opening the door to the bathroom he saw Sera brushing her teeth and their eyes met through the reflection of the mirror. Not wanting to hesitate for another second he reached the by the basin in two leisurely steps and hugged from behind without saying a word.

He watched her face in the reflection of the mirror as she closed her eyes contently and leaned her head against his chest. Seeing this, he felt the corners of his plump lips stretch into a loving smile and he rested his chin on the top of her head.

_I’m not letting you go ever again._

|Kihyun POV|

Kihyun has had a couple of rough days.

First, there was that whole thing with Minhyuk that happened and had been happening right under his nose and Kihyun had blamed himself for never noticing, even though Minhyuk told him multiple times that it had been his own choice to keep it from the family because in the end result it helped them surge forward with the plan. However, no matter how many times Minhyuk would say it was okay, there would always be a part of Kihyun that would blame himself for Minhyuk’s life being harder than it already had been.

Second, two days later him and Sera had to go deal with the ‘cleaners’ they called to get rid of the bodies of those two because they decided to let their tongues go loose and started to spread rumours about Kihyun ordering Sera to get rid of civilians, which in turn cause the third reason for Kihyun’s headache and that was the summoning to Ryu Sungmoon’s mansion. There he had to explain to that son of a bitch that ‘no, Sera was doing this on her own command and it had nothing to do with him’, which was retorted with something that almost made Kihyun kill that mother fucker right there in the chair he was sitting in: “She’s a dog, Kihyun. And you’re walking her for me. Keep her on the fucking leash.” Oh, how much Kihyun wanted to kill him right then and there.

And fourth, was the fucking official business. The company was highly prosperous and big money turned round and round, the only problem being that Kihyun had to launder over half of it into the pockets of Ryu Sungmoon’s ‘business partners’. Now that the tax evasion and fraud squad was doing sweeps all over the country in all big or small companies, he was worried to get under investigation. He didn’t need his name plastered everywhere for people to see and potentially make connections. The press group of the company was good. An actual picture of Kihyun wasn’t really published anywhere. Just a couple here and there when he began at the job but because he was an ‘extremely private person and didn’t like to be photographed’, he always got out of articles and shows just by answering questions via email or assistant. Thankfully, Hoseok was of big help while sweeping Kihyun’s name clean of the money launder as well.

On the way from the mansion Kihyun’s mind was boiling with anger and when he checked his phone it displayed 4 missed calls, but none from the family. So, Kihyun switched it off and drove back home just listening to the songs on the radio. He hadn’t done that in a while and actually found it very relaxing and for the first time in years he slowed down the train of thoughts from the speed of a KTX to the one of a tram in San Francisco. Images of him and his family during their dinners and hang outs popped up in his mind. They weren’t images of them planning and discussing, rather it were those of them laughing, eating, drinking together and Kihyun’s mind wandered to how tight their schedules were and if they could have one last night out before they have to finish up. Of course, all of them wanted to finish up as soon as possible but maybe just one night wouldn’t hurt anyone…

Arriving in his penthouse fairly late, he didn’t expect to find Hoseok there still, but both him and Changkyun were working at the dining table, focused on their tasks. Not wanting to disturb them Kihyun went to the kitchen.

“Hyung,” Changkyun caught him just two steps later. “Your phone is off. All good?”

Kihyun looked at Changkyun, his eyes must have seemed tired or maybe he let his mask slip away (like he got used to with Changkyun). “Yeah, just…” Kihyun sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s been just a bad day.”

“Sera mentioned that Ryu Sungmoon called you in today. You alright, Ki?” Hoseok asked never tearing his eyes and focus from his computer, his fingers flying over the keyboard steadily.

“Yeah. Yet again, I almost killed him with a steak knife today,” Kihyun said and walked over to the cupboard, where he kept all of his weed.

“Why?” Changkyun questioned, his eyes big and curious as he stopped working and watched Kihyun light up a pre-rolled joint.

Kihyun inhaled the smoke and held his breath while he moved about to the couch and exhaled with a huff as he fell onto it and straight out laid on his back in the suit. He loosened his tie and opened the top two buttons of the fine white shirt he had on. After taking another hit, he finally replied to Kyun’s question, looking at the white ceiling. “That mother fucker told me that Sera’s just a dog I am walking for him and that I ought to just keep her on a tight fucking leash.” There was so much hate in Kihyun’s voice, it made Hoseok turn his attention to the grey eminence.

“I still can’t believe dicks like him exist,” Changkyun shook his head but Kihyun felt like that wasn’t the end of the conversation. “On the bright side, hyung, come take a look. I called you because of this.”

Changkyun sounded so intriguing but Kihyun was so comfortable in his current position… but then again. If Changkyun called him about it must have been pretty serious. So taking another hit, Kihyun got up from the couch and came to stand next to I.M and Wonho.

Checking if he was beside him, Kyun looked up and stared into Kihyun’s eyes for a moment with a sly smirk plastered on his face. “Hyung and I have been working on that program that we quickly wrote when noona got kidnapped, the one that recognizes faces. And look whom and where we’ve found just a little while ago.”

Kihyun watched the video I.M was showing him attentively and his breath hitched the moment he saw the person’s face in a motel. The video then switched to one of the many hidden spy cams that are often placed into motels rooms for illegal uploads of sex videos. “Is that Yoo Hongjoon?”

“Yep,” Wonho leaned in and clicked hit tongue. “But focus on the girl.”

Kihyun looked closer at the screen of I.M’s computer and squinted his eyes. The quality of the video wasn’t too bad but not too good either. At first he tried to focus on her face but there was nothing to be seen. It was an average face of a girl you could pretty much see just about anywhere. And then it hit him… the woman that Yoo Hongjoon, the Chief Detective of Underground Units was fucking was way too small to be an adult woman. “Is she underage?”

“We cross checked her. The girl just turned 15 two weeks ago,” I.M sat back in his chair as he answered with a darkened voice.

“Motherfucker,” Kihyun whispered to himself, disgusted by the video playing on the screen. “Did you record it?”

“Of course. We have everything,” Wonho nodded his head and continued to explain further. “We have high quality pictures of them entering the motel, at the reception and then videos in the hall and then of course there spy cam recordings. Guess how many hidden cameras were there in that one room?”

Kihyun shook his head not knowing the answer to his question.

“Sixteen,” I.M told him.

“ _Sixteen?_ ” Kihyun exclaimed extremely surprised.

“And we have recordings from all of them. Of course we didn’t allow them to leak online, since we need them more than some creep watching an old guy fuck an underage girl, but it’s still so fucking gross,” I.M continued, taking the now cold joint from Kihyun’s fingers and lighting it up with his own lighter. He inhaled with a hiss and passed it to Wonho, who repeated the same thing.

“The sad truth is that, this kind of gross information in this world can be one of your best friends,” Kihyun sighed heavily and ran his hand through his hair again.

They have already gathered enough information to take down Yoo Hongjoon in the professional sphere with all his dirty policemanship but this was a whole another level. He would already be a disgrace to the investigative force, but this would also bring him shame in personal sphere as well. Kihyun was sure that his wife definitely had no clue about him fucking underage girls. Maybe she knew he was cheating but most likely she didn’t know it was underage prostitutes, which by the way… prostitution and human trafficking was also pretty big fucking crime, but underage… and with the Chief of Detectives of ‘Underground Units’… that was a bigger fish that Kihyun ever hoped catching. Looking at it from another point of view, this also got Yoo Hongjoon into the same category as Ryu Sungmoon, but that motherfucker was a rapist on top of all of that. Kihyun had to admit that the unpredictability of life baffled him and many times he was left confused and desperate due to not knowing what to do in the current moment, but right now in this very moment, he loved the log that life has thrown under his feet.

Kihyun grinned eerily as his eyes were directed at the screen, but they were not looking at what was happening there. They were hazy and his mind was somewhere else. When he finally snapped out of it about a minute later the two hackers were staring at him intently.

“So what now?” Wonho asked, rolling the joint in his fingers before handing it back to Kihyun, who took a heavy hit and closed his eyes for a moment as he enjoyed the rush.

He exhaled, the grin never leaving his face. “It’s two strikes, one more to go.”

Wonho and I.M smirked back at him and Kihyun walked out of the room into his bedroom to go take a shower after this long day.

When Kihyun got out of the shower, Hoseok had already gone home and Changkyun was smoking on the balcony. Kihyun quickly grabbed a blanket from the back rest of the couch and went to the balcony as well.

He reached Changkyun from the back and knew the younger registered his presence, but both of them felt they were on a level where they didn’t have to look at the other in moments like these.

Kihyun wrapped the blanket around Changkyun’s back and shoulders and hugged him from the back, resting his chin on the younger’s shoulder. He felt Changkyun’s body lean in a just a little bit more against him and a warm fuzzy feeling spread inside of him and or the first time in a long time felt a feeling of belonging somewhere with someone. Last time he had this feeling was when Sera allowed him to hug her after one brutal night with Ryu Sungmoon’s men in the concrete room, but then again it was slightly different - that moment he was raging like a hurricane on the inside but now he was as calm as a pond where koi fish slowly swim back and forth. He felt so happy to be in this moment with Changkyun.

“Hyung?” Kyun called to him with a dreamy voice.

“Hm?” responded equally.

“What will you do when this is all over and they’re all gone and we’re all free?” Changkyun’s curiosity needed feeding again.

“Hmmm. First, I’d like to travel since I’ve never really been anywhere without a purpose. And during that, I think we could find a place where we’d like to live. And when we do, I’ll decide depending on where we settle. But I think I would do an honest business for once,” Kihyun never really thought of this. Sometimes a snippet of something came to his mind, especially the travel part, but now more than ever he just wanted to find a different place to live. Then he would decide hot life would turn out for him.

“We? Do you mean we as the family or we as in the two of us?” Changkyun asked in a small voice and Kihyun heard it was laced with hope.

Kihyun smiled softly over Kyun’s shoulder looking out over the city. “Well, it would be nice if the whole family stayed together or at least close, but that might not be all that possible. I was more talking about the two of us. But of course I’ll understand if that’s not what you want,” Kihyun added the last sentence shyly, wishing it wouldn’t come to that.

Changkyun slowly turned around in Kihyun’s arms, the blanket slid to the floor of the balcony and he wrapped his arms around the back of Kihyun’s neck. “Hyung, if we could, I would go now and never look back to anyone but the family. I finally know how Hyungwon hyung feels when he talks about Sera.”

“Kyunnie,” Kihyun sighed and touched his forehead to Changkyun’s, “I know we happened so out of a sudden, but…”

“Don’t say anything, Kihyun. I know,” Changkyun said and kissed him very softly. There was nothing lusty or aggressive in the kiss as it normally would be at this time of the evening. It was soft, loving and spoke for thousand words.

The chilly night air forced them off of the balcony very soon as the two just kept standing in each other’s embrace, showing soft affections and said sweet nothings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... what did you think? What did you think of Hyunwoo scolding all of the family members, even those who weren't involved, just so that the don't feel left out? 😅 Just like all of the other members of the family, Jooheon also had a rough time caused by Ryu Sungmoon... is there anyone that guy didn't hurt with his greed? 😠 Hyungwon finally made the move on Sera an look how it turned out - did you like it? Were you happy that he got the woman he wanted for so long? 😏 And then... the final reveal about Yoo Hongjoon - Kihyun's plan is on the roll, my friends... 😏😏
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and please, please share your thoughts and opinions with me in the comments, I love to read them and talk to you 🤍😄
> 
> Hope to see you next time for chapter 14, but until then... please stay safe and healthy! See you next time (～￣▽￣)～ bye bye <3


	14. The Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kihyun suggest one last night out before it all goes down...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! I'm back with Little Psycho, I somewhat overcame my writer's block and even finalized my chapter count (on paper for now though, because it may change as I write along). 😄
> 
> Today's chapter still has a little bit of that lightness and then we go down with serious business. I hope you enjoy 😊

|Kihyun POV|

Kihyun called in an emergency family meeting in Minhyuk’s office the next afternoon after the discovery of Yoo Hongjoon’s usage of underage prostitutes. It was Friday so the bar was already opened when Kihyun walked in at 3PM sharp. He did want to come earlier to have coffee and chat with Minhyuk about what’s going on in their world but official business held him back.

He walked up the stairs behind the bar, where the old bartender very politely greeted Kihyun while polishing a whiskey glass. Upon entering Min’s office Kihyun found Hyunwoo, Jooheon and Sera missing.

“No, I’m not kidding,” Minhyuk laughed hard along with Hoseok, Changkyun and Hyungwon. “It really happened like that!”

“It’s true,” Hyungwon confirmed Minhyuk’s statement, which only made the lot laugh even more.

“What really happened like that?” Kihyun asked with a bright smile on his face. He lived for these moments with his family, for these happy or funny memories they came back to when they had time. Kihyun sat next to Changkyun on the couch and crossed his legs one over another.

“Do you remember the guy from our graduation year, who was like so all over me all the time when he heard that I was bi?” Minhyuk reminded Kihyun of one of their old classmates and Kihyun’s smile stretched even more. This was such a good story.

“You told them the story about how Hyunwoo hyung…” Kihyun said and Minhyuk nodded to the already laughing Kihyun.

“It’s all true, guys, see? Even Kihyun confirms it,” Minhyuk kept on chuckling at the memory.

“I really would have expected Sera to come to the guy and be like: ‘Hey, you ain’t doing my brother okay?’ But Hyunwoo hyung went so overboard I almost rolled on the floor laughing when he walked into our class with that deadly stare that only he can pull up and focused his eyes on the poor guy sitting on Minhyuk’s desk, completely oblivious to what was going to happen. Best thing was that Sera and I started cracking up as soon as Hyunwoo hyung walked into the classroom. It was so fucking funny,” Kihyun told them a part of the story again.

“And imagine, I was sleeping next to Sera on the desk during the break and suddenly I hear a massive noise coming from the side. And it was the guy falling off the desk when he saw hyung towering over him. He was like two heads shorter than him,” Hyungwon added and Changkyun and Hoseok just kept listening to them amused beyond, grinning like Cheshire cats, hungry for more stories like this one.

“What exactly did Hyunwoo hyung tell the guy?” Changkyun questioned.

“He was something like: ‘You know Minhyuk’s my step brother, right?” Minhyuk began.

“The guy said: ‘Yeah.’” Kihyun continued.

“And hyung just fucking topped it off,” Hyungwon laughed again. “’How is your gag reflex? And do you think your ass is big enough? Because let me tell you real quick, he sure as fuck won’t bottom.’”

“If he looked like he was joking, it maybe would have been fine,” Kihyun wiped a tear from the corner of his now crescent moon shaped eyes, “but he was dead fucking serious the whole time.”

“Yeah, I literally thought I was going to die from laughter,” Minhyuk admitted. “I was wheezing, not making a sound ‘cause I laughed so hard.”

“And the whole classroom was silent, like dead silent. There was only the sound of Sera slapping me on the back, Minhyuk wheezing, Kihyun trying not to burst out laughing and me breathing it out,” Hyungwon finished.

At this point, both Changkyun and Hoseok had to wipe their tears off and held their stomachs. When they finally started to calm down the missing trio walked through the door laughing themselves as well.

“And what are you laughing at?” Minhyuk asked with a grin and Sera looked at him with a raised brow.

“You first,” Jooheon challenged him.

“I just told Hoseok and Kyunnie the story from school when Hyunwoo hyung completely intimidated the guy sitting on my desk,” Minhyuk replied and both Hyunwoo and Sera chuckled at the memory that popped up in their heads now.

“They just told me the story of Kihyun first shooting from a gun,” Jooheon smirked and Hyungwon and Minhyuk erupted into a laught while Kihyun frowned at being the butt of the joke.

“It’s not that funny,” Kihyun said, but a smile formed on his lips.

“It was hella funny,” Sera corrected her slightly older brother and sat close to Hyungwon after collecting a kiss on the cheek from both Minhyuk and Hoseok, which was a novelty to Kihyun, but not an unwelcomed one.

“Yeah, it really was amusing. Admit it Kihyun, you were not built for this type of an activity,” Hyunwoo flicked Kihyun’s forehead playfully on his way to Minhyuk’s desk where he plopped into Minhyuk’s office chair with his feet on the table as that was his usual spot for their meetings in Minhyuk’s office, while the bar owner himself sat on his desk. Kihyun and Changkyun both shared a small couch, Sera and Hyungwon shared the other one and Hoseok and Jooheon had incredibly comfortable armchairs each.

“And I never said I was,” Kihyun agreed with Hyunwoo’s statement. “I’m a thinker not a doer.”

“You could have been both,” Sera teased him. “But… _nah_.”

“Since we’ve decided this, let’s get to what I’ve wanted to talk about and then what I’ve wanted to offer you,” Kihyun went back to ‘business’ mode. “Kyun, please pull up the video.”

Changkyun made a few clicks on his laptop while the whole family went silent and the when he checked that everyone had their attention on him turned the laptop on his knees so that it faced everyone in the room.

The video started after he clicked the space bar and Kihyun saw neutral faces concentrating on what is happening on the screen. The only face that wasn’t neutral was Jooheon’s and for a moment he wondered why that was.

“Is that Yoo Hongjoon?” Minhyuk asked, his eyes trained on the Chief Detective entering a motel room with a suspiciously young looking girl. “The girl is not more than 16 for sure.”

“She is sixteen,” Hoseok told him, but his eyes never went to the screen again.

“Is there more of this? Or do you just have one?” Sera looked at Changkyun.

“Our AI program is currently searching for more all over the city but it takes a lot of time. There are a lot of places and a lot of cameras and a lot of faces,” Changkyun replied.

The video went on but no one wanted to watch anymore, all the members of the family were disgusted to the marrow of their bones.

“I have a question that just came to me…” Hoseok began. “If you’re Yoo Hongjoon and you have a lot, like a shit ton, of money… why would you go to a dirty motel like this? Why not go somewhere better, where the possibility of spy cams is much lower? And also, everyone has heard of these spy cams in motels, everyone knows about them, why would he not check?”

Hyungwon answered first. “Well, it’s exactly because he’s Yoo Hongjoon. The chance of being recognized at a dirty hourly rented motel is much lower than if he had gone to a fancy hotel. Plus, in a motel like this no one, not a single soul, would ask him questions about why he’s bringing an underage prostitute to fuck there.”

“True,” Minhyuk agreed. “And for you second question - he knows about them and that’s why he went there and didn’t even check. He has an exhibitionist streak obviously. I bet fucking an underage prostitute knowing there is someone watching gives him the rush and turns him on. Guess there is not a lot of things in the world that could turn a guy like him on anymore. I bet it has to be pretty difficult to get him hard in that age.” Min tried to end on a joke, but none of the members laughed as this whole situation wasn’t really funny.

“Okay, so what do we do with this information now, Ki?” Hyunwoo turned his attention back to Kihyun.

But before Kihyun could answer, Jooheon spoke up. “I know none of you asked but also neither one of you brought it up - the location of the motel.” Everyone gave Jooheon a quick confused look. “I know the motel.”

Sera chuckled shortly. “I don’t want to be that person… _but_ _how_ do you know it?” The tone of her mockery directed at Jooheon made everyone’s lips turn to smiles and grin.

“Not _like that_ , Sera,” Jooheon groaned and realized it would have been better if he hadn’t said anything.

“Ummhhhmmm,” Sera made an all knowing sassy sound that everyone understood the meaning of.

Jooheon shook his head and raised his hands to show he gave up on trying to explain this to Sera and convince her. So he looked to Hyunwoo and Kihyun instead. “The car shop that I worked in is right across the street. I’ve never been inside.”

“Joo, you know I can check, right?” Hoseok sent him a cocky grin with a wink.

“Hyung, shut up,” Jooheon whispered angrily at Hoseok.

“Oooohhh, that means ‘don’t check because you’ll find me there’,” Changkyun laughed and the arguing continued on for couple more minutes, during which Jooheon never gave up on defending his purity.

After those couple of minutes he tried to distract everyone by saying something Kihyun didn’t understand at the beginning. “By the way, has anybody noticed the change in the room?”

“What kind of a change?” Changkyun questioned Jooheon with a confused look on his face and a raised brow.

“No, what’s up?” Hoseok shook his head and his brows furrowed together.

“What do you mean?” Hyunwoo also asked.

“Really… no one noticed?” Jooheon smirked knowing and glanced at Minhyuk. “Not even you, hyung?”

“I don’t see anything out of the ordinary,” Minhyuk made a disagreeing face and looked over everything once again quickly, but found nothing, just like everyone else.

Jooheon pointed to the couch where Hyungwon and Sera were sitting. “Those two are fucking.”

Mayhem broke out.

“ _WHAT?!_ ” Hoseok exclaimed leaning forward in his armchair.

“WHAAAAT?” Changkyun gave them a wide eyed look.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Minhyuk actually sounded a little hurt, but Kihyun knew he was only pretending. He, just like all of the others, wished it upon them from the bottom of his heart.

“Fucking finally,” Hyunwoo made three slow claps. And smiled like a Cheshire cat.

Kihyun didn’t say anything just laughed and looked up and Hyungwon in a cheerful manner. The latter gave him a proud smile but neither Sera nor Hyungwon did any motion to lean into each other or show affection. They just stayed exactly as they were. After all Minhyuk was right in that one thing there - there truly was nothing out of the ordinary in the room. “Guys, I was thinking,” Kihyun called out to his family, “before we go into the final stage of the plan, how about we all go out. Like in the old times.”

“We went to dinner like a week ago, Ki,” Sera reminded him.

“I didn’t mean for a dinner. I meant like when it was just 5 of us - into a club, go drinking and do stuff we should have been doing in our twenties, things we did so rarely it might be considered missing out on something…Sera, especially the two of us. We’ve been planning this since we were 10 years old.”

“Kihyun, have you ever seen Sera and Minhyuk miss out on an opportunity to get drunk when you’re paying?” Hyunwoo laughed whole heartedly and a bitter memory passed through Kihyun’s mind of that one time when Minhyuk and Sera left quite the dent in his bank account last time they went out drinking as a family.

“You have to admit, though… it was a fun night,” Minhyuk nudged Hyunwoo’s feet that were still placed on his desk.

“I’m… I’m actually not going deny that,” Kihyun chuckled as well. It was fun.

|Changkyun POV|

Changkyun wasn’t all that excited about going to a club. He’s been to parties and clubs before, during his 1st year of university with Hoseok but they went more to get ‘jobs’ and find people, who would could be potential clientele; other than that the two went to a bar when it was a birthday of either of them but they usually stayed in their room where they drank convenience store beer from cans and smoked up on something good from their dealer.

So even saying that Changkyun was underwhelmed to go to a club would be an understatement. He would have much rather get holed up on Kihyun’s couch with his laptop or smoking up on Hoseok’s/Sera’s balcony - because he still didn’t know whose the apartment was at this point. No one knew. Sera would say it was Hoseok’s and Hoseok would reply with ‘no way, I’m just staying there for the time being’. Changkyun would even rather go to the gym with Hyunwoo, Hoseok and Jooheon rather than a club. But it wasn’t as if he had a choice at this point.

“Hyung,” Changkyun shyly tried to grab Kihyun’s attention during their drive to the apartment to get changed into more appropriate clothing.

“Yes? Kyunnie, is everything alright?” Kihyun took his eyes off the road for a short moment to look at the younger with a slight worry in his eyes.

“I just… I definitely have no clothes I could wear tonight,” Changkyun confessed.

“Is that the only thing?” Kihyun asked, suspicious about his behaviour.

“Well… I don’t like clubbing, but maybe if you had a way I could get my hands on some Amanda…” the younger told Kihyun with a small voice.

“Amanda? Is that what kids call an MDMA these days?” Kihyun chuckled at how creative kids got these days with their names for drugs.

“Um, yeah.”

“Why do you think you’d need something like that? Just because you don’t like clubbing?” Kihyun questioned the young hacker further.

“Kind of, yeah. It’s a party drug after all.”

“You could just drink, many people do,” Kihyun told him with a shrug.

“I get shier the more I drink,” Changkyun snickered and turned his eyes out of the passenger seat window.

“Okay then. I don’t have anything, but Hyunwoo hyung or Min might be your choices. But Kyun, I gotta ask… do you know the other effects that MDMA usually has on people?” there was a hint of mischief in Kihyun’s voice but Changkyun really didn’t know any side effects other than dehydration.

Changkyun shrugged, displaying that he didn’t know.

Kihyun made the last turn into the underground garage of his apartment building and stayed silent until he parked the car in his designated parking spot. Kihyun then leaned over the middle, close to Changkyun, whose breath hitched as he felt Kihyun’s warm exhales near his lips. “People tend to get very cuddly after MDMA, especially those that are normally shy like you described yourself. I also heard from Minhyuk that the sex feels better than after weed,” Kihyun whispered against Changkyun’s lips with the same mischief in his voice that he’s had there before. Changkyun would lie if he said that it did nothing to him. No, his stomach twisted and his throat went dry from lust and he was about to lean in those extra two inches to close the gap between his and Kihyun’s lips but in that moment, Kihyun pulled away with a smirk. “Just saying, though.”

The elevator ride was one of the worst ones in the history of elevator rides for Changkyun. The young hacker felt like he was going to implode if he didn’t at least subtly brush over his somewhat tighter pants in the crotch area. He didn’t know what it was today that he felt so desperate to just fuck Kihyun, he really couldn’t get around why his mind was so dirty today. Maybe it was the confession from yesterday or just the soft things that Kihyun shared with him on the balcony, or maybe that, after that moment on the balcony they both just went to sleep in each other’s embrace. But never mind the reason, Changkyun felt really needy and Kihyun seemed he was enjoying the fact that the younger was so desperate to feel Kihyun against his body.

They entered the apartment and Kihyun went straight to the shower saying he needed to wash his hair. When he left the room Changkyun’s mind instantly went to all the possibilities of what could happen if he followed the older into the shower.

His mind gave him two highly possible scenarios. One, Kihyun would kick him out and two, he would welcome the younger and maybe, but just maybe, Changkyun might find satisfaction. He was about to decide for the second and just go for it, but then he halted his steps just before entering the master bedroom and thought again, why he felt so horny.

He stood there, like a foot away from the door, with his hand on the handle, for about a minute, staring a hole into the door before he acted on an impulse and quickly opened the door to the bedroom where he hastily took off his clothes, trying so hard not to think about anything other than if he didn’t put his clothes into the hamper he would get an earful from Kihyun no matter how good it was.

After Changkyun has done that, he didn’t allow himself to waiver anymore and without hesitation entered the master bathroom, which was already a little steamed up from the hot shower Kihyun was taking. Without even taking a breath he made those couple of steps and hugged Kihyun’s body from behind pressing his body close, kissing the wet skin on the nape of his neck.

Kihyun’s head rolled to the side, giving Changkyun more access to the soft skin of Kihyun’s neck.

“Took you longer than I thought,” Kihyun moaned at the kiss he was receiving just below his ear.

“Hyung, I really fucking want you,” Changkyun just confessed right away, there was nothing to hide since Kihyun already knew what had been going on in Kyun’s head anyway.

Kihyun turned around in Changkyun’s embrace and pushed the younger against the wall, while he fell onto his knees in front of him. Needless to say, Changkyun was surprised - not because Kihyun was apparently going to give him a blow job (that wouldn’t be a new thing in the first place) in the steamy shower but because he got on his knees. He never thought he would see such a proud man go down for anyone. The trust that Kihyun was giving Changkyun was euphoric and it almost made Changkyun delirious from lust.

Changkyun didn’t have expectations and even if he had them they would completely dissolve in the feeling that he felt in the moment that Kihyun took his half-hard length into his hot mouth and gave him a light suck on the head of his cock.

Kihyun repeated the motion a couple of times to get Changkyun fully hard and then he ran his tongue on the underside of the younger’s hard member, which earned his lustful groans from the man standing. Changkyun lightly threaded his fingers through Kihyun’s hair, not to pull or tug or guide the older - no, he just wanted to keep contact with the older.

When Changkyun looked down with hooded eyes and saw Kihyun’s mouth moving around his length, swallowing him with his nose all the way at Changkyun’s base he moaned so loud, his mind became even needier.

 _Oh God! Fuck!_ Changkyun swore on the inside while on the outside he made lewd mewls and moans just for Kihyun to hear, which needless to say, only gave the older encouragement with his moves.

“Hyung, ah _fuck_ ,” Changkyun began to be vocal as he got close. Kihyun made his approach harder to get Changkyun over the edge so that the younger gets his much desired release sooner rather than later. “ _Hyung,_ ah,” Changkyun came breathless into Kihyun’s mouth, the older swallowing the white cum in his mouth.

Changkyun was still attempting to catch his breath when Kihyun got up from the floor and passionately kissed the younger, which was responded by Changkyun pushing his tongue against Kihyun’s and deepening the kiss. He could still taste himself on Kihyun’s lips, which made him whine and Kihyun smirked into the kiss.

When they finally broke the kiss, they were both as breathless as Changkyun was right after his orgasm. “I’m sorry, hyung,” he apologized not even knowing what for.

“About what?” Kihyun chuckled as he grinded his hips against Changkyun’s earning himself another one of those needy groans. “You’re sorry that you wanted me or you’re sorry that I gave you a blowjob or you’re sorry about all the water we wasted in the shower right now?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, his breath catching on another of Kihyun’s grinds.

“Then don’t be. You should never be sorry for anything like this towards me, Kyunnie.” With those words Kihyun separated their bodies with a quick peck on the younger’s lips. “Take a shower, okay?”

Kihyun left the blissed out Changkyun under the hot stream of the shower and walked out of the bathroom, grabbing a towel off the rack on the way.

|Sera POV|

Finding a dress in Sera’s closet was a fucking rarity, but she was sure as hell there was that one piece that Minhyuk got her for her last birthday with the words that she should where that to Ryu Sungmoon’s funeral to look fabulous. Sera never unpacked the luxury box, she just stuck it somewhere in her, well now Hoseok’s, flat.

_But where the fuck did I put it?_

She stood in the bedroom looking around, but mainly saw only Hoseok’s things. They were celebrating tonight and she wanted to wear that dress, because she sure as hell was not going to attend that bastard’s funeral. He wasn’t going to have the honor of even having one.

“Sera?” Hoseok entered the bedroom, taking in his confused little sister. “You alright?”

“Yeah… I’m just looking for this box with a dress that Minhyuk gave me last year for my birthday. It had the only dress in it. I just stuck it somewhere knowing it was highly unlikely for me to ever get to use it, but I have this kind of a pull today that I want to wear it.” As she said those words never looking at Hoseok, her eyes jumped around the room, Hoseok came to stand next to her with a knowing face.

“And why do you feel the sudden desire to wear the dress?” his voice was laced with mischief and Sera gave him that one look with a raised brow she used when someone asked her annoying questions.

“I told you I didn’t know. Why the fuck are you asking me stupid questions that I have already answered,” she wasn’t angry or annoyed, she just wanted to stop feeling dumb and forgetful and find that idiotic dress… okay maybe, she was a little annoyed.

“Could it be maybe that you want to give Hyungwon a heart attack?” Hoseok said while he got on the floor next to the bed and reached under it with his arm.

“Of course, I put it under the bed, I thought I only had the M4 case in there,” Sera slapped her forehead, clearly avoiding the question that Hoseok asked her.

But Hoseok was not about to give up. “So about Hyungwon…”

“Have you not noticed my oh-so-obvious attempt at avoiding that question?”

“I have, but I’m not letting go,” he smirked and handed her the box.

“He saw me naked. Why would have heart attack?”

“Sometimes, dressed is more sexy than naked, Sera,” Hoseok ruffled her short black hair and left her standing in the bedroom while he went to take a shower.

Hoseok and Sera left their apartment 5 minutes late. Sera was on the couch playing games on her phone while Hoseok ran around like a headless chicken trying to find a pair to his one black sock. At that point Sera told him: “You see, that’s why I never owned a lot of things in the first place. You never end up having to look for something for too long.”

When they finally sat in her car on the way to Heaven’s Gate, a prestigious club of Minhyuk’s kind of (that was what Minhyuk said) friend Jeonghan and Sera drove swiftly through the night city streets breaking several laws and not giving a damn, she felt Hoseok’s eyes on her. “What?”

“Nothing. It’s just that only you can wear Doc Martens with that kind of a dress,” he smiled and shook his head.

The slightly tighter black dress with slight side ruching hugged her body just right, the cowl neckline gave just the right amount of view but left a lot to imagine for anyone, who didn’t know her and the mid thigh length gave her but enough coverage as well as definition. The dress was sexy without the necessity of being cheap. Sera guessed that was what it meant for a relatively simple black dress to cost a couple of thousands, but then… Minhyuk could afford it.

Apparently, Minhyuk called the club beforehand because as soon as the valet noticed the Jaguar coming down the street he ran out like crazy to meet the car. Sera got out and gave him the key with a deadly glare, which was well received with a dry swallow.

The family minus Hyunwoo and Jooheon were just outside the club, waiting for the rest while they smoked. Hoseok also pulled out a cigarette to join Minhyuk and Changkyun. Sera stepped next to Minhyuk to get her kiss and then stood next to Hyungwon, who classically placed a soft kiss onto the corner of her lips, but unlike in the past it was the lips, not the cheek that was kissed. It was a beautifully soft loving gesture.

“Why are you wearing black again? I thought you said you would wear something special?” Hyungwon asked in a flirty manner, he knew well Sera didn’t own clothes in any other color.

“Maybe I just like to always be ready to go to someone’s funeral,” she winked at him and gave him a short kiss on the lips.

“Strange that I don’t even wonder why I actually believe you on that,” Hyungwon laughed shortly.

Sera leaned in and whispered into his ear, which made her stand on her tiptoes, which in turn made Hyungwon’s hand slide from the small of her back to the top of her butt. “Or maybe I just know that wet spots aren’t all too noticeable on black clothes in a dark bar.”

Hyungwon hissed a sharp inhale, his hand slowly feeling over the fabric of her dress. “Are you not wearing underwear?”

“Maybe yes…” she fell silent for a moment and licked her lips only for Hyungwon to see. “But most definitely not.” She winked at him and broke away to follow the family into the Heaven’s Gate club, since meanwhile the two were talking Jooheon and Hyunwoo appeared.

|Changkyun POV|

Changkyun was not having fun.

Okay, maybe it was because they have been in the club for altogether 30ish minutes, but still… he was not having fun… like at all.

“Changkyunniiiieeee,” Minhyuk chimed from next to Changkyun on the couch. He has finally joined them after talking to his friend that owned the club for so long, “why do you look like you’re not having fun?”

“Parties are so not my thing, hyung,” Changkyun complained looking at his hyung.

“Is that why you called me about the Amanda? Because you want to try and enjoy the last party?” Minhyuk raised a playful brow to the younger.

“Yes,” Changkyun confessed and his shoulders slump a bit in the fitted white button up shirt, tucked into black tight skinny jeans. Kihyun even showed him how to do his hair and after he was done, the older also said Changkyun looked really hot. So he was fairly proud of himself. He looked like he belonged into a club like this, sipping expensive champagne.

“Well, I’m happy you called and I hope that after this kicks in you’ll join me down on the dance floor,” Minhyuk took out a small zip lock bag with about a dozen of pills in it from the breast pocket of his navy suit jacket that he wore over a camel coloured turtleneck and slim straight dark wash Levi’s. Changkyun nervously looked over from the VIP balcony down to the full dance floor of sweaty people dancing to the EDM beats. “C’mon, Kyunnie. You can have fun out of the sheets as well. _Trust_ me.”

Changkyun glanced at Minhyuk’s palm that now had two pills lying on top of it - one for each of them. He took it and placed in his mouth, chasing it down with a glass of water.

“You’ve taken this before, right?” Minhyuk wanted to make sure.

“Only a couple of times,” Changkyun said with a nod, “when Hoseok hyung tried to make me more social.”

“Well, then you know you gotta drink a lot of water and don’t drink too much alcohol, so you don’t get the double dehydration,” Minhyuk winked at him and gave him a cheeky smile. “Here, take a half of the pills, but I’ll think you’ll be okay with this one, maybe maximum of one more since you’re not used to this. Have fun, little bro.” With that Minhyuk left him and shouted from afar reminding the younger to join him on the dance floor as soon as possible.

Changkyun wasn’t sure the Amanda was working, but soon he found himself in a moment when he started to drown in the harsh beats and bass of the music ripping through the club. He noticed Minhyuk in the middle of the dance floor in the sea of bodies and glanced over at Kihyun, who kept an animated conversation with Hyunwoo and Jooheon laughing at something ever since they came. Hoseok was talking to Hyungwon, while Sera was somewhere else. Kyun wasn’t jealous of Kihyun for having fun with someone else, or that Hoseok was also talking to someone else, but he suddenly felt the urge to get lost to the rhytm.

So he let his feet take him to the dance floor and among all those bodies he found Minhyuk’s. As soon as he reached him, Minhyuk took him in his arms for a quick but tight hug and then released him as the beat dropped. Dancing with Minyuk, while being as high as Changkyun was, had gotten him to the stage when he could confidently say he was having fun.

Changkyun was having fun.

He didn’t know for how long he had jumped on the dance floor with Minhyuk, but Changkyun was sweaty and his styled side swept hair stuck to the nape of his neck, all wet… but he was having so much fun.

When Minhyuk said they need to go drink some water and that he might just take another pill when he’s at the table, Changkyun very, _very_ reluctantly followed his hyung off the dance floor to the VIP balcony.

Kihyun noticed the young hacker right the moment he stepped into their VIP space, in fact, he had been watching him jump his heart out with Minhyuk with all the sweaty bodies on the downstairs level. Changkyun caught Kihyun’s eyes on him and he wasn’t exactly sure what the gaze was but _oh damn_ was it ever hot.

Changkyun took the offered water bottle from Minhyuk but didn’t sit next to this hyung. Rather he made his way to the couch where Kihyun was with a newly discovered confidence, most likely boosted by the drug and sat next to Kihyun, turning his body towards the older. He unscrewed the cap of the bottle and drank from the bottle with his head tilted back and eyes closed, enjoying both the cold water flowing down his throat and the knowledge that Kihyun was watching him. He knew Kihyun had a weakness for his neck, his Adam’s apple and once Kihyun even let his tongue slip that he loved seeing the sweat covering the younger’s neck because it made him look so sexy. So yeah, Changkyun was using this gathered information for his own good right now.

He felt the body next to him lean in and heard the voice of the man he loved travel to his ear over the music. “I know what you’re doing.”

Changkyun trained his eyes on Kihyun, but felt the high still go through him as he angled his own body toward Kihyun. “Oh yeah. Is there something wrong with that?”

“Absolutely nothing wrong with that,” Kihyun answered with a smirk, licking his lower lip slowly as he watched Changkyun’s eyes follow the tip of the tongue caress his lips, wishing it was his own on Kihyun’s lips right now.

“Hyung,” he whispered just to make sure nobody was going to hear what he was about to say. “Fuck me,” the seductiveness of Changkyun’s voice made Kihyun’s eyes blaze with lusty fire.

Kihyun’s hand shot out and grabbed Changkyun by his chin, giving the younger a quick kiss. “Come.” He stood up from the couch, not paying attention whether or not Changkyun hesitated to follow him, because he knew he would.

On their way to wherever Kihyun was leading them, Changkyun spotted Jooheon’s and Hyunwoo’s smirks, but instead of feeling embarrassed, which he probably normally would, he gave them a wink. The two laughed at that and went back to their conversation they now had with Sera, who held a glass of the very expensive champagne.

Changkyun was led by Kihyun into the downstairs bathroom. He didn’t know why Kihyun led him here when there was a much better and _private_ bathroom right next to their VIP zone. The bathroom was still luxurious like the rest of the club, but it wasn’t private.

There was no one when they entered and Kihyun pushed Changkyun into one of the stalls locking the door behind them. He pressed the younger against the wall and quickly undid his pants, moving his hand into his boxers and giving his length a couple of strokes as he felt it grow hard. He kissed him passionately, sucking his bottom lip harshly and grazing it with his teeth, earning himself a lusty moan from the younger. “You looked so hot, dancing your heart out in the mass of bodies on the floor.”

Changkyun didn’t take another moment to unzip Kihyun’s slacks and caressed the hardness in the older’s crotch. “I love that you watched me,” he told Kihyun, his voice edge with need. One hand went to unbutton Kihyun’s deep indigo blue button up shirt, so that he could run his hands over Kihyun’s firm abdomen, which he just simply _loved_. Whether to rub, kiss, lick or come all over.

They kept stroking each other’s members until they were both oh so painfully hard. They kissed until their lips were swollen and red from the abuse of teeth and sucking. They were both breathless but that didn’t stop them in the very least. Changkyun’s high only got his skin even more sensitive to Kihyun’s touch than it had already been before - every touch, every stroke, every kiss he felt twice, thrice as much. His mind was in seventh heaven, but then again he was always in seventh heaven when Kihyun was pressed against him.

Changkyun leaned rolled his head back against the wall when Kihyun sucked on the spot between his collar bones and mewled in pleasure, his hands went to Kihyun’s head and he threaded his fingers through the older’s hair as he grinded his hips against his hand.

Suddenly, Kihyun removed his other hand from the nape of Changkyun’s neck and reached into the pocket of his pants, retrieving a foil packet that Changkyun correctly identified as the single use lube packet. Changkyun pushed his pants lower, revealing his ass and Kihyun handed him the packet to hold onto as he lifted the younger off the ground and pushed him flush against the wall.

Changkyun wrapped his legs around Kihyun’s waist, with his hands he tore the lube packet open and squeezed some over Kihyun’s finger. He moaned lustfully when the cold liquid cover finger massaged his rim and got even louder when the first finger entered him.

“Shhh, we’re in a public bathroom, baby,” Kihyun reminded him with a sly smirk and only now Changkyun realized why Kihyun brought him to the downstairs bathroom. He wanted the thrill of the semi-public sex, but Changkyun’s lust clouded mind didn’t complain at all, he felt the thrill as well and it only made him hornier.

Kihyun prepared Changkyun quickly, after all, his cock was painfully hard and a part of his mind just begged him to fuck Changkyun senseless. When he felt that the younger was ready for him he positioned himself at Changkyun’s rim and pushed the head of his cock in. The younger’s head rolled back, his face carried the expression of utter bliss and his mouth fell open in a silent moan. Kihyun didn’t wait for Changkyun to adjust and he sure as hell didn’t want to be gentle with his thrusts.

It was quick and dirty, just like a public bathroom sex should be.

When Kihyun recognized the signs of Changkyun coming close to his orgasm, he started to pump the younger’s hard cock quickly, ruthlessly. Changkyun moaned loudly again, this time not giving a damn that someone might hear them and that threw him off the edge and he came over Kihyun’s bare chest.

Kihyun followed him after a couple more rough thrusts. He slipped out of Changkyun and set the younger back on the ground. Both tried hard to catch breath and they helped each other to get dressed and to look proper again. They kissed one last time before leaving the bathroom stall, both perceptive of the fact they looked completely fucked out and anyone would be able to tell what just happened in the bathroom.

But no one could see Changkyun complaining.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of Hyunwoo's approach to the guy from Minhyuk's class? Yoo Hongjoon had his days counted before, but even more so now, right? The family went to have fun one last time and wasn't Kyun's new found (drug-induced) confidence just so much fun when he winked at Jooheon and Hyunwoo? 😂
> 
> Also, just a quick ❗❗disclaimer❗❗ You DO NOT need any kind of a drug to have fun in a club. This is a story were casual drugs are accepted, but you should never feel forced by the society or 'friends' into taking drugs. This is a work of fiction and if you for whatever reason decide to take a party drug, please be careful and drink a lot of water and never mix it with alcohol (the results usually end up being of the unwanted kind). Drugs are not the way to having fun. You can have fun without drugs and even without alcohol. Thank you for reading my disclaimer.
> 
> What are your thoughts on today's (lighter) chapter? We will soon dive into the final plan and I would love to hear (read) your opinions in the comments, so please share whatever comes to your mind 😄🤍
> 
> I hope to see you next time when we meet someone from Jooheon's past (it's a cameo!!!) but until then, have a great week and see you soon 😃😃🤍 bye-bye


	15. The Gunshot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jooheon meets old friends...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hello! 😃 And welcome to chapter 15. You may or may not have noticed, I have finalized the chapter count for Little Psycho 😧 (so soon...) but I have successfully reached the end of the timeline creation, but fear not my very dear readers, there are still many twist and turns to go through before the family gets to their end. So we have gone to the times of more serious chapters.
> 
> Also, in this chapter - a cameo! 🙌

|Jooheon POV|

Jooheon woke up with the biggest fucking hangover in his whole entire fucking life. He cursed all the gods he could recall, old and new, for giving him such a horrendous headache.

But out of all the gods he knew, he cursed Ryu Sera the most.

 _Damn, that girl can fucking drink… like a monster_ , he thought to himself as he tried to roll out of the bed. He had so much to do today and the last thing that he needed was to drag an elephant of a headache around him.

He had been warned by Hyunwoo that when Sera and Minhyuk got together to drink like this, it was suicide to drink with them, but Jooheon was stupid enough not to believe his hyung’s words to the dot. Jooheon tried to keep up with the two at least a little bit. And he should have given up. He should have given up. Oh, man… he so should have.

It was way too early for Jooheon to wake up after such a brutal night out, entirely too bright to leave the house without the darkest sunglasses he owned and most definitely it was not a good day to eat anything other than plain soup broth, but he didn’t have any of that so the small Cantonese place just below his house will have to do. He’d just have to do a little bit of a wink at the old owner lady and she would give him the best soup to cure his hangover.

When the clock hit 2PM, Jooheon was driving to his old car shop to meet his old hyungs that saved him so many years ago, when he could have gone down a very different and a very wrong path. He didn’t want to look like he did. He wanted to look his best so he could tell his hyungs not to worry about him at all.

He parked his Shelby in front of the car shop and side-way glanced over to the motel on the other side of the street. It looked somewhat peaceful during the day, but Jooheon knew better. He’s always known that the motel was quite the popular spot with hookers and prostitutes but now that he knew about the underage girls, he felt even more disgusted to look over there.

Jooheon got out of his car and walked into the shop, mentally cursing himself for taking the sunglasses off but it wasn’t too bring in the office. The girl behind the counter was a face Jooheon didn’t recognize. She was chewing a big piece of gum in a kind of disgusting way, making her look more wack than swag. “Can I help you?” she asked seemingly annoyed that Jooheon even entered the office of the car shop.

“Is Jackson in the back?” Jooheon questioned slowly to display the same annoyance the girl was radiating.

“Maybe,” she replied and looked back to whatever was happening on the phone in her hands.

Jooheon just shrugged at his and made his way around the car shop he knew like the back of his hand.

“Heeey!” the girl called out after him and the high pitch of her voice made Jooheon’s headache even fucking worse. “Where do you think you’re going?!”

“You’re way too loud,” he told he in a low irritated voice and turned back to walk in the way he intended to.

“You’re not going into the back without my permission,” she stood up and jumped in front of Jooheon, blocking the door with her own body.

Jooheon gave her a glance, looking her up and down cockily before saying: “Shut up.” He somewhat gently pushed her out of the way and she didn’t or couldn’t do anything out of the utter shock Jooheon’s behaviour left her in. He opened the door into the back repair room and saw a couple pairs of legs sticking out from below cars and a couple of familiar people leaning over engines of illegally tuned cars.

“Heeey! Don’t talk to me like that!” she shouted after Jooheon, which got the attention of a guy, who stood bent over one of the cars.

“You don’t talk to him like that and go back to the office,” the guy’s deep annoyed voice directed at the girl and strong accent felt so familiar to Jooheon and he felt as if he just came home after a shitty long day. Jackson grinned at his younger friend and walked over to give him a quick bro hug. “I missed you, Heonie.”

“I missed you too, hyung,” Jooheon smiled at the car shop owner. Jackson came over from Hong Kong so many years ago, but his accent was almost as heavy as the day he arrived in the city for the first time. Jooheon noticed some new faces around the shop and his mind jumped to the happy memory of Jackson being the saviour of lost souls, who needed a shelter and a somewhat honest job in the city.

“Jooheonnie!” another voice called his name and Jooheon turned around to see the American race driver Mark. “I knew the Shelby outside must have been yours.” He came to Jooheon and they did the secret handshake that Jackson had always been jealous of.

“A Shelby? You got a Shelby?” Jackson exclaimed surprised.

“The newest one, probably tuned too,” Mark answered for Joohoen.

“Of course, she’s tuned,” Jooheon smiled with a wink, showing his deep dimples.

“But what brings you here?” Jackson got back to his serious mode, his face was full of concern. “When you left, you looked so determined to go after your goal, whatever it was, that we thought you would never return. Something happened to you?”

“Actually, yes. Something happened,” Jooheon sighed. “I found out exactly what happened to my parents and how I can get revenge. I thought I would only get revenge, but along the way I found a new family, who has the same goal as me and they, well at least some of them, are even more fucked up in their heads than me and we all know that’s something special,” Jooheon snickered at his statement and walked over to one of the cars Jackson was working on. “And thanks to them I earned a shit ton of money for the family and myself. I found myself and what I want to do, when this whole revenge shit is over and how I can repay you for the kindness you have shown me so many years ago, when you convinced Tiger hyung to take me in. But I kinda need your help one more time, hyungs.” Jooheon looked away from the car with pleading eyes to Jackson and Mark wondering what their answer would be.

But as Jackson was about to answer another familiar voice spoke from somewhere below a car, making all three of them turn to a bright yellow Lambo. “What the fuck are you even talking about? You don’t have to repay shit. We’re all family, whether you left or stayed. Family is family and I bet that now that you have found your other one you know exactly what I’m talking about, right?” JB rolled out from beneath the car and stood up wiping his hands into a rag. “What do you need, Jooney?” The smile on his face was so genuine that Jooheon kinda wanted to cry.

“Yeah, I get it now. I guess I needed to find the family I truly, truly belonged in to understand how you guys function,” Jooheon admitted with a short laugh. “About the help… someone we are after is a frequent guest opposite the street,” Jooheon didn’t need to say the name of the motel or what the person did there - they all knew what was going on in there. “He did something to one of my hyungs and there is no way he could get away with fucking underage girls.”

“Gross,” Jackson’s face twisted with disgust.

“Yeah. What do you need from us?” Mark asked.

“I need to get a hold of the guy, who supplies him with these girls,” Jooheon told them outright.

“Why do you think he doesn’t just ask them directly? Underage prostitution is a pretty big deal,” Jackson asked interested.

“He’s too big of a fish to do something like this himself,” Jooheon replied.

“How big are we talking?” Jinyoung appeared from the side of Jooheon, giving him a pat on the shoulder as a greeting.

“Chief Detective of Police Force big.”

“Oh shit!” a thick accent sounded from behind. “Yoo Hongjoon sure is a big fish.”

“Who…” Jooheon’s eyes switched from the skinny kid to Jackson and JB.

“This is Bam Bam, he’s our newest addition to family. He’s just a bit older than Yugyeom,” Jinyoung introduced the kid with a strong accent.

“So you’re that Jooheon hyung that hyungs always brag about. They say you’re the best driver and all,” Bam Bam smiled widely, showing his perfect teeth.

“I guess,” Jooheon shrugged shyly. “But I don’t have much time here, unfortunately... Will you guys help me?”

“You bet! Shits like hit should rot in hell forever,” Jackson spat out still hung up on his disgust for the actions of Yoo Hongjoon. “And when we find the pimp?”

“Try to keep him and I’ll come as fast as I can,” Jooheon asked of the guys in his old car shop.

“No problem, Jooney,” Jinyoung promised. “You hungry? You’re looking kinda pale.”

“Just hungover as fuck, hyung,” Jooheon laughed and everyone joined him, while JB went to get coffee for them.

Jooheon knew that if he went to the car shop he would stay there for a while at least to catch up with the guys, but he didn’t expect it to be 4 hours of just talking about various kinds of stuff, from serious to utmost bullshit. He almost didn’t make it to meet Hyunwoo and Sera for their rounds. After what happened to Hyunwoo last time he went into Ming’s part of the blinds none of them ever went alone anymore. They couldn’t afford to lose a family member. Not from this family. They were all too important.

Jooheon got out of the car shop with his hangover cured, after the guys cleared his stomach with their scolds for drinking so much. Picking up Hyunwoo at his apartment was the easy stuff. The oldest brother literally jogged down the stairs all jolly about the sunny afternoon.

“You look fresh, hyung!” Jooheon shook his head in complete amusement when Hyunwoo got into the car.

“I even hit the gym at lunch time. I don’t know why you kids look like you do,” Hyunwoo laughed at Jooheon sunglasses pushed up his to nose to block as much sunlight as possible.

“You kids?”

“I called Sera like 20 minute ago, after we ended our call. Man, Hyungwon picked up,” Hyunwoo continued to laugh at the situation. This got Jooheon smiling.

“How many times did it ring?”

“It rang out 4 times and the 5th call went like 5 before Won picked up. Oh, he was so _pissed_ that someone was even calling Sera today. Apparently, she drank so much she’s got stomach poisoning due to the alcohol. I can imagine the weed she smoked with Hoseok and Kihyun along the way didn’t help to calm her body down either,” Hyunwoo said with a sly smirk on his face. His maliciously sounding joy was highly contagious and Jooheon found himself grinning like a Cheshire cat too.

But Jooheon should have known. He should have known that walking into Hyungwon’s apartment with those smug smirks plastered on their faces was a _bad fucking idea_. They found Sera on the couch, dressed in one of her many black skinny ripped jeans and a big black hoodie with the hood pulled all the way over her face and her feet on the coffee table. Hyungwon was walking around the kitchen and the smell of chicken soup travelled around the joined kitchen and living room.

“Since when do you cook?” Hyunwoo asked with his eyebrow raised at Hyungwon.

“Since you can shut the fuck up and stop being so loud,” Sera replied annoyed, her voice raspy from the night before, her body remained the exact same position as it had been in before. Even her mouth barely moved as she spoke.

“Is that how you should talk to you oldest brother, kid?” Hyunwoo mocked her but the mockery left his face when he heard Hyungwon clear his throat and both guys standing looked over there. It was the first time in his whole life and Jooheon thought it could very well be the last one, when he got to see Hyungwon with a deadly stare with a big chef’s knife in his hand. For a split moment Jooheon thought he wouldn’t see tomorrow’s sunrise. Hyunwoo raised his hands in a giving up manner.

“Let’s get going then!” Sera called out and stood up from the couch in a sudden burst of energy, looking so damn fresh with zero dark under-eye bags that Jooheon suspected to poke out from underneath the hood. She looked like she did every single day and then he heard Hyungwon chuckling from the kitchen. “Wait… you thought I actually… oh c’mon. Don’t you know me better?”

“You were sick- _ish_ , though,” Hyungwon countered with a smirk and a wink.

“Yeah, in the morning. It’s 4PM, Wonnie,” she clarified and walked over to him and to the great surprise of Hyunwoo and Jooheon, she stood on her tip toes and kissed Hyungwon square on the lips lovingly as Hyungwon caressed her cheek. It was a very pure and affectionate moment and Jooheon thought to himself that if his heart had melted now then how was Hyunwoo seeing this after knowing the two’s antics from the very beginning.

Hyunwoo smiled the softest of smiles the tall giant could, his eyes turned into two crescent moons as she whispered something into Hyungwon’s lips, who smiled in return after hearing the soft quiet words that were only for his ears. “Well, I hate to disappoint but let’s roll!”

“Yep!” she tore her body away and walked over to the entrance door.

Jooheon drove the car. Hyunwoo sat on next to him while Sera disassembled her 9mm gun on the back seat, cleaned it out and put it back together as the talked over what needed to be taken care of tonight. “The soup was not for me by the way,” Sera said after a long moment of silence.

“For whom then?” Hyunwoo questioned.

“Hyungwon talked to some poison expert and he’s trying out what he could put into Ryu Sungmoon’s food to make him suffer a bit,” Sera explained.

“Is he playing with laxatives again?” Jooheon snickered.

“Actually, I think this time, it’s hallucinogens.”

|Kihyun POV|

Kihyun thought his days as the telephone exchange were over, but apparently some of Ryu Sungmoon’s ‘business’ partners, who owned shares in the official company were having a rough day and decided to make Kihyun their punching bag.

This was Kihyun’s fifth call he had to pick up with one of the ‘business’ partners, who owned a small share of the company. _“You piece of shit!_ ” was the first sentence. “ _Why is my share percentage lower than it was yesterday? I owned 5,34% company stocks and today I am at 2,71%? How the fuck is that possible?_ ”

“Mr. Kim, yesterday the stocks took a little plunge at the market and an important investor into, who is very interested in the technological research bought a lot of the company stock available with the intention to donate money for the research…” Kihyun tried to explain.

“ _I don’t give a fuck about some research. The company works to launder out our money. We have that agreement with your fucking boss. You don’t get to decide shit in this world, little piece of crap, you only live to do what we tell you. And if you can’t even do that then there’s no point to your life_ ,” Kim kept spitting at him but Kihyun only rolled his eyes and swirled the coffee around in his cup to cool it down.

 _Wonho pulled a good one this time_ , Kihyun smiled to himself, proud at Hoseok’s thinking and actions when once again manipulated the stock market. After so many trials and errors he got it right and this time, in the final stage of the plan, he started to take the Ryu Corporations apart by stocks and shares. At first, Kihyun didn’t even think of this option, he never had the initial desire to destroy the company along with everything else since a lot of the employees were mainly honest people. _Gotta love Wonho and his mind!_

“Mr. Kim, please don’t say that. Mr. Ryu’s niece is very fond of me,” Kihyun pulled the card he knew would scare the shit out of the guy on the other side of the connection.

“ _Uhh, ummm, well… just be careful with what you do!_ ” he barked out the last part hastily and hung up immediately before Kihyun could say more. But the Grey Eminence didn’t need to say more, he had the biggest shit eating grin on his face and sighed contently.

He glanced around his office and felt a wave of satisfaction soar through him. He wanted to share some good news with someone he loved and the first person that popped up to his mind, whom he wanted to share this with was Sera.

Once he found her name in the contact list in his phone he felt a pang of guilt that it wasn’t Kyun. He hovered his finger over Sera’s number before finally deciding to dial it.

It took a couple of rings before she picked up with a hushed and half angry voice. “ _Not a good time, bro!”_

“What happened?” Kihyun’s voice sounded a little panicked over what could be going on that Sera seemed to be under pressure.

Then a deafening gunshot sounded through the call.

“What’s going on?” Kihyun half shouted and then the line went dead. Kihyun tried to dial Sera’s number right away but the phone was off.

Kihyun was not sure where Sera was or whether she was supposed to be somewhere today and the person, who would know instantly would be either Hyunwoo or Hyungwon. The worried man dialled Hyunwoo first and while the call kept ringing he tapped his nail on the agar wood in a quick pace. The call rang out when Hyunwoo didn’t pick up, so Hyungwon was the next person on the list.

Hyungwon picked up rather quickly. “Won, where is Sera?”

“ _Perhaps went to do rounds with Hyunwoo and Jooheon,_ ” Hyungwon answered casually, his voice sounding uninterested about what might be going on or why Kihyun was asking.

“I called her and she said it wasn’t a good time and then there was a gunshot. Where did they go do rounds?”

 _“They didn’t say anything about where they were headed,_ ” Hyungwon still sounded the same as if Kihyun’s words hadn’t hit him yet.

“Won, did you even hear what I said?” Kihyun pressured him over the phone.

“ _Yeah. Honestly… why should this concern me? What’s the worst thing that can happen? If someone dies, I have one less person to treat. That’s all.”_

Kihyun didn’t understand how such words could come out of Hyungwon, but then an idea sparked in his mind and with a heavy sigh he asked: “Hyungwon, how do you take your Martini?”

“ _Definitely dirty_ ,” he answered as Kihyun knew - Hyungwon was in the presence of someone he could not speak about any of the family matters.

“Okay. Call me when you can.”

“ _Don’t hold your breath_ ,” Hyungwon hung up quickly and Kihyun found Jooheon’s number to call next.

Jooheon picked up after a couple of nerve wracking rings. _“Umm, hyung… you really know when to call_ ,” he grunted.

“ _Shut up and don’t move around_ ,” Kihyun heard Sera’s voice from the other side of the line. It sounded commanding and angry.

“Jooheon, what happened?”

“ _Uhh, not much really. Call you back, okay?_ ” Jooheon hung up and Kihyun mind started pulling strings.

|Changkyun POV|

The two hackers have finished the final stage of their preparations and now just tweaked some visual details to make it all ‘look pretty’ as Changkyun called it. Hoseok’s slash Sera’s apartment was full of empty cups of instant ramyeon and takeout food containers - they didn’t even bother to take proper chopsticks and used the one use ones that come with the takeout. The only dishware that could be seen in the apartment was mugs they used for coffee.

“Hyung, when we finish this, do you think we can go to the cemetery tonight?” Changkyun asked out of nowhere.

“Sure. Why are you even asking that?” Hoseok shrugged still concentrating his eyes on the screen. “Any particular reason you want to go to the place you hate more than high school?”

The question startled Changkyun a little bit. It was the truth he hated the cemetery and only went there on his parents’ death anniversary but even though it was more than 4 months away at this point he felt the need to go. “I guess, I just feel like lighting a candle for them.”

“Cool. We’ll stop by the shop on the way there to buy one for each of them,” Hoseok suggested with a kind smile to Changkyun, whom he had ‘adopted’ during their high school years since they were both loners.

Now that Hoseok had a car, the way to the cemetery was much shorter than when they used to take the bus. Changkyun had never gone to the cemetery alone because he felt like it dawned on him more that he was all alone in this world had he gone alone.

But today he somehow felt a little different.

Even though Changkyun hadn’t come to visit his parents’ grave that many times he remembered the way by heart and navigated around the other graves without a single mis-turn. He led Hoseok holding the two big white candles. He always bought the big ones because he knew it would be another year before he’d come there again. Now maybe even longer…

They walked in silence, just like everyone else did in this place, honouring the fact that the dead were on their eternal rest just below their feet and they should not be disturbed. When they reached the grave and even the sounds of their steps disappeared, the only sound being the rustle of their clothes and the road that ran just next to the border of the cemetery.

Changkyun set the candles onto the grave, one on each side in their respective holders - one for each parent and lit them up with a lighter he fished out from the pocket of his jacket, but it did take him a while to find it in the deep pockets filled with miscellaneous items such as phone, keys, protein bar wrappers, tissues and others.

Both men stood in silence over the grave. At first Hoseok looked at each candle with a small fire and then he turned his eyes to the sky and stared at the clear evening sky. Changkyun stared at the picture of his parents that was framed next to one of the candle holders, he smiled a small smile and sighed deeply.

“You know, hyung,” he started to talk quietly and Hoseok came to stand closer so the younger didn’t have to speak up. “There were days when I would have done absolutely anything to get them back.”

Hoseok took the young hacker by the shoulders and gave him a reassuring squeeze. “I know.”

“But strangely, these days… I don’t miss them as much as I used to,” Changkyun confessed. “As if I had started to let go of the grief.”

“I get it. We now have a living family so, yeah… I get it.”

“It’s not just that, hyung. It’s like, I would still want them back… of course I would, but lately it’s more like I wouldn’t want them to see what I’ve become, even though… we are doing this for a relatively good cause… at least our part. But then again… Kihyun hyung told me that had it not been for my parents’ death, we would have never met. And that stuck… it was a bitter realization that even you and me wouldn’t have been what we are,” Changkyun fell silent and looked Hoseok straight in the eye, “and when I take a look back… I wouldn’t change anything because truth be told… not meeting Kihyun hyung would suck… but not meeting you, hyung… would suck so much fucking more. I can’t imagine my life without you in it, hyung. Really, you gave me so much care and purpose, you got me back on my feet, you taught me so much about everything in life not just programming and hacking, you protected me back then from anyone, who might have meant harm to me and you still do it now. Thank you for being my family, hyung.”

Changkyun’s words softened Hoseok’s face and his expression turned kinder than ever before. A loving smile appeared on his face and he pulled Changkyun into a tight brotherly hug. “Kyunnie, thanks for appearing in my life too. Thanks for keeping going when you wanted to give up on life. I’ll always be here for you. No matter what, I’ll always be your hyung,” Hoseok told him in a low voice, still keeping the etiquette of the cemetery.

Changkyun laughed shortly and squeezed Hoseok tight before letting him go, he looked at the grave for the last time and patted the gravestone with his hand in a loving manner as if it was the shoulder of his mom or dad. “I miss you guys. I hope your journey to Heaven is brighter now that you have the candles here. And I know I promise this every time I come, but I swear I’ll try to come more often. And I think this time I might be able to hold onto the promise since somehow it’s not as painful anymore and maybe one day I’ll bring Kihyun along with me. Rest well, mom, dad.”

The two were making their way back to the exit of the cemetery when Hoseok’s phone buzzed. “Minhyuk’s writing that we should come to Kihuyn’s apartment. Apparently something happened with Hyunwoo, Jooheon and Sera when they went on their rounds.”

“Sure, let’s go,” Kyun nodded but neither of them sped up their steps. After all the family would understand that they were among the deceased. “But, hyung… do you have any weed in the car?”

Hoseok snickered and took Changkyun by the shoulders again. “Why is that even a question?”

“For the _last_ fucking time, I’m telling you that nothing happened,” Sera’s voice came from the living room just when Changkyun opened the door to the penthouse.

“Yeah, Ki. I don’t get why you’re so nervous. We already explained everything,” Hyunwoo’s voice sounded tired and a little annoyed.

When Hoseok and Changkyun entered they noticed the family member scattered around the living room and Kihyun standing in the middle of it. Minhyuk was smoking at the balcony window with Jooheon next to him. Sera was sitting on a barstool as far away from Kihyun as she could get away with. Hyunwoo was on the couch and Hyungwon was next to him with sutures and other medical instruments laid out on the table.

“You were shot, hyung. _Again,_ ” Kihyun fumed.

“It’s just a scratch,” Hyunwoo waved it off. “Plus it would have been worse had the bullet gotten Jooheon.”

“Yeah, cheers again, hyung,” Jooheon smiled, showing his dimples, the gratefulness dripping honey from in his voice.

“It doesn’t matter! We cannot afford to lose a team member now!” Kihyun shouted and his face got unexplainably red.

“Oh my God. Are you listening to yourself?!” Sera raised her voice to the level of Kihyun’s startling everyone in the room. “We’ve been through stuff like this with Hyunwoo so many times. It’s the fucking blinds, Kihyun. People shoot there, sometimes for no real reason. This shit happens, this shit is our _day job_ , so would you _calm the fuck down_!” The room was silent after Sera’s words. As she saw that there was no retaliation to her words for a moment she walked to the coffee table and talked to Hyungwon in a normal voice again. “I’ll wait for you at home.”

“Where he fuck are you going?!” Kihyun shouted after her as she headed towards the door. “I’m not done yet!”

“ _Yes_ , you are, Yoo Kihyun. Right now, we need to lay low. We can’t do anything out of the ordinary that would drag attention to us now. Doing our job _is_ laying low. If we report this to Ryu Sungmoon he’s not going to bat an eye. We are _so_ close, Ki,” she reminded him. “We can’t mess up now with such a stupid thing. Hyunwoo is okay. Everyone is okay.” And with that she turned on her heal and headed back to the door again.

“Wait, Sera!” Hoseok exclaimed out of nowhere and caught up with her by the door.

“What’s up? Do you want to scold me too?” she asked with a quirked brow.

“No, actually… I would like to ask you for a favour,” he said quietly. Changkyun stared at Hoseok confused and against his better judgment moved closer to the two so he could eavesdrop on the conversation. It wasn’t polite, or something Changkyun was proud of doing, but his curiosity won over his manners. He internally shrugged at that because as long as he’s been alive it was like that. He was a son of a scientist after all.

“Okay,” she replied and waited for Hoseok to speak.

“There is a bag in our apartment by the door, a black simple one. Could you please take it tonight to an address I give you?” Hoseok tried with a low voice without much confidence.

Sera’s face turned into a frown and she crossed her hands on her chest. “What’s in the bag and who is it for?”

Hoseok sighed deeply and his shoulders slumped even more. “It’s money and it’s for my mom.”

“Listen,” Sera’s voice softened as well as her facial expression. “Don’t you want to take it there yourself?”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t or you don’t have the balls to?”

“The latter.”

“Then I will take it there but under one condition,” she said to Hoseok.

“Name it.”

“Write her a letter and put it into the bag. I’ll take it tomorrow night.”

“What? No, I can’t,” Hoseok protested again.

“Why?”

“Well…”

“Listen, Seokie, you’re the only one out of us that still has someone to call ‘mom’. I think she’d like to hear from you. At least that you’re doing fine and that now you can be the one, who takes care of her and not vice versa,” Sera told Hoseok in a suggestive manner, but Hoseok just frowned.

“How can you know what she’d like?”

“Maybe because I don’t have a mom anymore and I’m stuck with Yoo Kihyun,” she scoffed and left the apartment but Changkyun had to admit that Hoseok at least looked like he gave it some thought and he could confidently say that he agreed with her.

**~2 WEEKS LATER~**

It’s been a couple of long nights of sleepovers at Hoseok’s place. Well, considering that you can call a nap in a chair ‘sleep’. Both of them had put in the last adjustments to this and that for the final stage.

And finally…

It was coming.

Tomorrow.

After tomorrow their job in this family’s revenge will be done and no more than a couple days later everyone will get their revenge. Or at least some part of it. Kihyun kept changing his opinion on whether or not Ryu Sungmoon should die or just suffer for many years to come subjected to the damage of Hyungwon’s increased doses of poison. It was scary, if Changkyun was to be honest. Hyungwon was scary when he talked about poison and how it was kind of fucking up Ryu Sungmoon’s organs and making things malfunction in his body. _Cool_ , but fucking scary.

His other hyungs remained without change, except maybe the fact that in the last 2 weeks he had seen Kihyun twice and if he counted the time altogether it was maybe about 2 hours when he brought food to him and Hoseok. Sera, on the other hand became colder and colder. She never came around anymore and when Hoseok called her over for a joint she straight out refused saying she didn’t feel like it, which was the weirdest thing to Changkyun because she used to hang out with them a lot. He thought she really became their person and now he was more confused than ever about what might have happened. Changkyun wanted to say something, talk to her about it but they were so busy that he usually forgot after Hoseok and he smoked up and got back to work.

Now when all the work was done and Hoseok and Changkyun were sitting on the balcony waiting for the sunrise, which should be in a couple of minutes.

Hoseok sighed heavily taking a hit of the joint they shared. “It’s almost over, Kyunnie.”

“Yeah… I can hardly believe we made it, hyung. It was a tough job,” Changkyun agreed.

“Tomorrow will be absolute mayhem. I wonder how they’re going to handle it,” Hoseok chuckled.

Changkyun let out a content huff and stared out towards the east.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man... a lot of things happened in this chapter, right? Jooheon met with his old crew - how did you like that small cameo? 😄Hyungwon brewed another one of his poisons and Changkyun said he was scary when he talked about poisons - what did you think of this? (When I was writing that part I imagined Hyungwn from No Mercy when he 'got angry' at Gun as they pulled that prank.) Hyunwoo got shot again, but this time saving Jooheon - endless brotherhood, right there, eh? 😉 Hoseok and Changkyun went to the cemetery and got down to the feelings a little bit, before that shitshow of an argument between Sera and Kihyun - what are your thoughts on this? Who is overreacting? And FINALLY, the boys (meaning the hackers) finished their parts of the plan, so please come back to read the next chapter to find out the kind of mayhem the duo will cause.😄😄
> 
> Phew, that was a... lot. In either case, please share your thought on this chapter with me in the comments - I love reading them and interacting with you! 🤍🙌😃
> 
> I hope you liked the chapter today and will comeback for the next one too! Until then, I hope you have a great day! ヾ(￣▽￣) Bye~Bye~


	16. The Mayhem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courtesy of I.M Wonho...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hi, hello 🤗 we are nearing the end of Little Psycho and Hoseok's and Changkyun's job in the plan reached its grand reveal. But with that some unexpected complications rise to up.
> 
> (also please, note I am no programmer and understand very little into this kind of stuff and this is all a work of fiction. so for those, who do understand and in case something like this is not possible - I am sorry, but someone also wrote all the stuff that happened in the numerous season of C.S.I.s, so... yeah. Sorry 😅)
> 
> I hope you enjoy today's chapter and please let me know what you think 😄

|Kihyun POV|

The family has gathered really early in the morning in Kihyun’s apartment to watch the morning news on all of the national channels. The morning news had almost as many viewers as the evening news, but they would be there too for sure.

Hoseok and Changkyun worked so hard for this moment and they both theatrically brought bowls of popcorn. Minhyuk held a cigarette and a glass of wine in his hand (at barely 7AM) and the rest of the family members were sitting around the living room and doing their thing while waiting for the broadcast to come up.

But it wasn’t only the broadcast.

All the daily paper that was printed this day was intercepted to print the news Wonho and I.M had for the world and it was done in such a way that no one would find out until they arrived at the shop in the morning to be sold. And of course, the poor vendors would have no idea that they weren’t supposed to sell these. From 5AM all of the papers sold all over the country were covering the story of Yoo Hongjoon.

Every radio station in the country broadcasted the news from the paper and from the TV, even if the radio or TV station shut down and restarted all of their processes, the virus that Wonho and I.M created had a time set for which they would function and be stored in the memory of all of the devices connected, including wi-fi routers, phones, tablets, even smart watches.

The online news platforms were no different than the printed paper. Okay, they were a little different for I.M and Wonho - it was easier to make everything happen there. All social media users that had the location in their app and they were in their country got the messages through social media.

Every phone number that was under a registered phone carrier was sent emergency messages at 7:01AM to check the news in the paper, online or social media platforms. It didn’t matter if they were in the subway without a signal or deep in the mountains were the signal towers hardly reached the people living there. It was spread on an encrypted emergency channel only used to call emergency hotlines.

Every person in their country now knew of everything Kihyun wanted to show the world. And it was all signed ‘ _Courtesy of I.M Wonho_ ’.

At 7AM the news began just like any day with a warm welcome from the announcers. At 7:01AM the mayhem began.

The screen turned black for a second and the next a text appeared on the screen, reading ‘Breaking News’. The AI voice from the TV was programmed to read the text it was given: “We interrupt the regularly scheduled broadcast for breaking news.”

Then the screen of the TV changed again and the name and picture of Yoo Hongjoon came up along with his title. “This man’s name is Yoo Hongjoon,” the AI voice spoke again. “He has been the Chief Detective of so called Underground Units that in the law enforcement system exist as a unit that is supposed to deal with organized crime units and gangs in our country for many years now. They are also supposed keep the mafia families in check, but here are some proves of Chief Detective Yoo Hongjoon’s and General Song Minhyun’s crimes of taking bribes.” While the voice continued to talk images and videos of Yoo Hongjoon talking, dining and drinking with Ming Zhan, Ryu Sungmoon, the Shins and others. Evidence of him covering up the many murders and drug related deaths rolled on the screen. There were pictures and videos of him with women and underage prostitutes. Nothing was toned down, nothing was blurred and, for sure, _nothing_ was left out. And of course, the horrible act done upon the daughter or Yoo Hongjoon wasn’t omitted from the report. Chief Detective Yoo’s secret dirty greedy life was now a public one and there was nothing left behind the curtain that was lifted by the two unknown hackers.

I.M and Wonho were hard at work for so many weeks and months to create a fool proof set of programs and viruses that would not be able to be shut down by anyone else but the two of them. These viruses and malwares needed to be all perfectly timed to appear in the TV and radio broadcast stations and phones at the same exact time and they would need to exist in the devices’ software even after rebooting. They were created to be the ‘HIV’ of the country for one day. They made it so fool proof and perfect that all of the day’s news paper printed what they wanted it to print and no one could turn it off even if they found out in advance. Every police station and detective office had received a big package with hard drives and printouts of all evidence that Wonho and I.M gathered, either by themselves or from Minhyuk, but of course no source was ever named. The pictures, video and audio evidence spoke for itself.

It was a difficult task that took them a long time to make and many sleepless nights and even more failed test runs were there to prove how hard they worked to let the whole world know of the dirty deeds of the highly thought of Chief Detective of the ‘Underground units’.

“This news was brought to you by I.M Wonho,” the AI voice ended the broadcast that would repeat itself at exactly 8AM again. But people didn’t know that yet. No one knew what more could the duo bring again. The virus would automatically erase itself when the midnight came and the date would change. All they needed was one day.

“We deeply apologize for the disruption of the regular broadcast,” the announcer of the morning news said. “Our investigative journalists are currently looking into the verity of this possible rumour and we will inform you as soon as something re-appears as well as the news on the hacker by the nickname ‘I.M Wonho’. Let’s get back to the regular news…”

Cheers and applause sounded through the living room of Kihyun’s apartment. Every family member was giving praise to both Changkyun and Hoseok for their hard work. Kihyun was smiling slyly but there was no happiness in it even though he reached one of the things he had wanted the most in his life.

“The Online Daily just posted about this. The article is called ‘Courtesy of I.M Wonho: This is the Chief Detective Yoo Hongjoon’. There are so many things in here,” Hyungwon said as he scrolled through his phone. “There are selected pictures, screen grabs from videos, snippets of the call recordings, bank statements and more. They put all of it together with their own commentary, saying that their investigative journalists had a sniff of this before but had been shut down but General Song Minhyun.”

“Of course they would say that,” Minhyuk shrugged. “But they posted their own commentary on it and that’s important.”

“Are you seriously already drinking at 7:25AM?” Sera laughed at her older brother rather than talk about what was currently going on.

“Bitch please… What do you mean by ‘already’?” he smirked at the remark. “I am _still_ drinking. I never went to sleep from when I started last night.”

“And you drove here?” Changkyun asked surprised.

“No, Heoney here gave me a lift. No way, I’m driving when drinking. I do a lot of stupid shit in my life and in the car, but I’m not going to endanger my life and the life of other innocent drivers on the road,” Minhyuk shook his head in disagreement of Changkyun’s thinking. “I’m a sensible human being.” Sera coughed at the statement. “Sometimes,” Minhyuk added as he sent a glare to Sera, who returned a sarcastic smile to him.

“In either case… good job, guys. I think this was an absolute masterpiece,” Hyunwoo smiled as he also scrolled through his phone checking the news on all online platforms. “This will cause an outbreak of mistrust in the law enforcement units and all departments will most likely go under big restorations and all members of each office will be checked through and through.”

“I agree. You guys did something phenomenal,” Jooheon placed his arm around Changkyun’s shoulder and smiled pleased at the turnout of events.

The only person, who stayed silent at this point was Kihyun.

Kihyun scoffed and looked around the room. He’s seen all happy smiles for the first part of their plan being out there and done. Hoseok and Changkyun were pretty much done and the special tweaks they brought in, the further discoveries of dirt they made were only a further proof for Kihyun that the decision to accept these two as the family was the right one. Both have found their rightful place in their world. Kihyun was a little worried about the darker side of Hoseok emerging, ever since Hyungwon confined to him that he had found more people, who have been doing similar harm to people like the couple that had been getting off on Minhyuk hurting himself in front of them. He’s been asking Sera to help him out more and more and Sera being Sera, she would never refuse a chance to hurt another human being, innocent or not. That was the monster in her. When Kihyun confronted her about this two weeks ago, she only reminded him that the beast needed to be fed. Hyungwon wasn’t too happy when Kihyun shared this information with him. He wanted to take her out of this world where pain and death were inevitable and ever-present, but no one knew what was going to happen once Ryu Sungmoon was dealt with.

Kihyun was a little worried about how the rest of his day was going to go as Hoseok sat down at his laptop at the dining table. “Hyung, what are you doing?” Changkyun asked surprised.

“A little something that I suggested to add to the whole revenge bit of this affair - the beginning of the fall,” Hoseok never turned his eyes away from the screen of his laptop.

“What do you mean?” Minhyuk questioned very intrigued by whatever the fall could be.

“Well, thanks to the progress Kyunnie had made on the algorithm changing virus he used to breakdown the firewalls of the stock market and manipulate stock and shares to end up on our side-“

“Wait!” Changkyun cut him off. “How did you know about that?”

“I taught you everything you know about hacking, didn’t I, Kyunnie?” Hoseok smiled a sickly sweet smile so characteristic to Sera.

This has forced Changkyun’s face into a confused frown. “Yeeees?” he stretched out.

“But do you think I taught you everything I know?” Hoseok raised a playful brow in his direction, his smirk now playfully mocking. “I know your ways of doing stuff, plus I know all your passwords, since your PCs were the first places would try them on. If they can crack your passwords and walls of your online and offline storage fortresses, they can access anything and everything. After all, out of the hackers I know, you are the best security measures coder I’ve ever met,” Hoseok praised the younger hacker as well as uncovered his tiny problems. “So as I was saying before I was interrupted - I went into the banks, stocks and share lists of Ryu Holdings and there is going to be one more courtesy of Wonho.”

The smile on Wonho’s face as he clicked his keyboard brought a seriously wide smile onto Hyunwoo’s face. “Care to share what the courtesy is about?” Hyunwoo posed further questions to satisfy his curiosity.

“You know that Ryu Holdings has a lot of funds and trustees and partners, right?” Kihyun looked around the room.

“No way…” Sera laughed silently and leaned into Hyungwon.

“Yes way,” Hoseok winked at her. “I planted a ‘small’ drainage malware that I let grow and change algorithm on its own accordingly, and yes, Kyunnie, it did take me ages to write but then I have been working on it for 3 years at this point. What it does is that it will drain all the money, stocks and shares that reach Ryu Holdings in any kind of way and re-route the money into the shell companies and accounts I had in back up or all of this from about two years ago and then slowly and randomly leak them through encrypted channels into the ones that Jooney had created for us to use when all of this is over. The money will travel in scattered and untraceable pieces thanks to the small tweaks I made in the coding of the program Kyunnie worked on to get in and out of the stock market without anyone tracking him down. Smart thing you did there, Changkyun, but I made it even smarter.”

“In that case, all of Ryu Sungmoon’s ‘business’ partners will from here on out have no power or shares over the company,” Minhyuk stated.

“The company will go bankrupt because of a new hacker, who takes all of its resources,” Kihyun finished for him.

“You’re sinking the company,” Hyunwoo was a little baffled at the decision that Kihyun made. “I can’t really believe you decided to also take the company down with you.”

“Honestly, there was no way I was going to leave something behind, some straw that that bastard could maybe catch or use as leverage because Wonho is not only taking all the money out of it,” Kihyun smirked evilly at the end.

“There’s _more_?” Hyungwon asked in disbelief that there could be more.

“That is the last part of the courtesy, Won. The last favour Wonho ever does for the world is show all the laundered money of Ryu Holdings and uncover all of the places they went to, which means all the ‘business’ partners of Ryu Sungmoon will soon be a part of this whole thing going on right now. He’s not going down alone,” Hoseok finished his explanation.

“But won’t Kihyun hyung get caught in the crossfire in this way?” Changkyun was curious.

“Not necessarily,” Minhyuk answered him. “I suppose those two have a plan on that as well.”

“Of course we do,” Kihyun stood up from his spot on the couch and walked to the window. “This drainage that Hoseok talked about will take a couple of days to not be too suspicious and the money needs time to travel and remain in various countries and shell companies before it can come to us. And by the time this is all done, Hoseok will have fabricated evidence that I had no idea this was happening. On top of that, I made sure during my whole time of laundering the money for Ryu Holdings partners that my name was in none of the communications and even they always wanted to do everything off record, which I believe is the point when you’re receiving dirty money in the first place, right? So when the company takes its plunge in about a week, I will resign from the position of CEO and by that time we will have dealt with Ryu Sungmoon and _poof_.”

“I love this plan way more than the one we made when we were 11,” Sera laughed wholeheartedly and Kihyun joined her.

“What plan did you have when you were 11?” Hyungwon stared at her with a wide pleased grin. He loved seeing her smiling, laughing and happy. And to Kihyun, their happiness was the sign that the world he made for himself might not be as bad as the one he was born into.

Kihyun realized his mother was right in one thing she wrote in the letter to him that he read after her death. She wrote that she was very sure he would accomplish great things, in fact he could and would make anything happen that he put his mind to, that he was strong in that way. But after all the praise of his not yet developed individual skill, she added that he would do even better, greater, bigger things if he chose not to tread through life alone. If he happened to find true friends that would never look at his family status, he would live an accomplished life no matter where he would live it because true friends and love are two things that no wealth or power could buy him.

Kihyun found out early in life that learning from the mistakes of others before he had a chance to make those mistakes could only be beneficial to him. At first, he thought he would only manage to befriend Sera, but he realized he started to feel warmth around her just like the one he felt around his mother. He didn’t want to believe it at first, however the signs were there and Kihyun was a smart kid after all.

What he never even dreamed to think of was that one day, he would sit in the living room of his penthouse and watch his grandfather, who made his mother suffer so much pain, among his old-new family that consisted of 6 friends and a cousin, who was the only blood relative. Looking around the room, the realization of just how lucky he was to come across such amazing six brothers in this incredibly dark world almost knocked him off his feet.

Kihyun left the penthouse to go to his office, while the rest of the family either stayed or scattered. Among the scattered were Minhyuk, who needed to go run his bar, and Jooheon, who went to pick up more ‘real’ documents for their new identities when this is over.

The city moved so much differently today, people would stop by the TV billboards that carried I.M’s and Wonho’s message to them about Chief Detective Yoo Hongjoon and Genereal Song Minhyun. Everyone was paying attention to it as it was replaying again at 9AM when Kihyun was passing through the city to get to his office. He smiled to himself as he stood at a red light and people turned heads to watch the news roll over and over on the LED billboards. Many shook their heads as they read articles on their phones or talked to people around them.

He was very pleased with the outcome. But he also knew it was only a half of the job done.

|Minhyuk POV|

Arriving at his bar, Minhyuk found the darkness and complete silence very peaceful. The very kind Jooheon dropped him off and swooshed with the wind of the day to go about his business.

Minhyuk made a bee line to the coffee machine and pushed a couple of buttons to turn it on to heat it up for the service. He checked all the alcohol that might need to be re-stocked and then went up to the office to take his personal report books. By the time all of this was done, the coffee machine was ready to make him some dark liquid gold and it wouldn’t be Minhyuk if he passed on a well made espresso.

The door to the bar suddenly opened and when Minhyuk turned around he saw Jaehyun walk in. “Minhyuk, I need to talk to you,” he said without greeting the bar owner and walked right to him as he was sitting at the bar.

“What if I wasn’t here?” Minhyuk smirked at the newly discovered demeanour of the ever so polite and well-mannered Jaehyun.

“I would have found you elsewhere. Trust me,” Jaehyun reached him at the bar and sat down on the stool next to him.

“So what did you need to talk about?” Minhyuk kept the grin on his face.

“Did you know this was going on?” he gestured broadly into the air and Minhyuk understood what he mean but he felt like pulling his almost friend for a little bit longer.

“What do you mean by this?”

“This whole thing with Yoo Hongjoon?” Jaehyun deadpanned.

“To be completely honest with you… I knew about it. But I have used it to my advantage so many times that I decided to blatantly ignore the fact that he should be doing a service to the society, because let’s be frank here for a moment, Jaehyunnie… in our line of work, society can go fuck itself,” Minhyuk shrugged. Of course he wasn’t completely honest, but how could he be? He was in on this whole thing, he was a part of the whole bigger master plan, but no one… not a single person in the world could ever expect him to know and be aware of every little thing that went on in the world, especially if it was ‘out of his reach’.

“Are you not worried?” Jaehyun grabbed his biceps, his face full of concern.

“About what?” Minhyuk shook his head over the ways.

“About I.M Wonho. What if that hacker comes after all of us? All of the people, who live and make a living in the underworld?”

“That’s not going to happen,” Minhyuk calmly sipped on his coffee.

“You know him?” Jaehyun exclaimed surprise.

 _Something’s fishy_ , Minhyuk thought to himself. He knew Jaehyun and he knew that he would never act like this, because this was not how they both learned to act if they needed information.

“Do you want a favour from me?” Minhyuk asked, throwing the bait into the pond.

“Yes. I’ll pay anything,” Jaehyun nodded and his face visibly relaxed. _He took the bait and the hook… idiot._

“Okay. I’ll call him to come over. Give me a moment,” Minhyuk reached into his jeans and took out his phone. He dialed Sera’s number in a secretive way.

She picked up after a couple of rings and her voice sounded rather cheerful. She was most likely hanging out with Hoseok, Changkyun and Hyungwon. “ _What’s up?_ ”

“Can you come to the bar?” Minhyuk asked of her in a normal voice.

“ _Depends… when and why?_ ” the voice over the line began to sound as if she was suspicious about something.

“There is someone here that really wants to meet you,” Minhyuk replied in a sly sweet voice.

“ _Oh, really?_ ” she snickered in a sick child-like manner. “ _They want to meet me?_ ”

“You’re I.M Wonho hacker, aren’t you?”

She laughed but there was no happiness in that laughter. “ _Oooh, now you’re talking! When should I come?_ ”

“As soon as you can is my best guess,” was Minhyuk’s reply.

“ _Should I come alone?_ ” her voices sounded playful and Minhyuk was a little worried he had awoken the beast but no one, not a single person in the world, was allowed to even try to mess with his family if he had the chance to get involved.

“Maybe not, but I’ll leave that up to you,” he smirked and hung up, turning to Jaehyun. “The hacker will be here shortly.”

“Thanks,” Jaehyun huffed out in silence.

“Can I just ask you something?” Minhyuk reached out with his hand and caressed Jaehyun’s cheek affectionately and tenderly. Jaehyun nodded as he leaned into the touch, completely oblivious about what could have even been going on in Minhyuk’s mind. After all, he was no mind reader - Minhyuk was much better at that. “Do you consider me stupid?”

“Hm?” The next thing Jaehyun knew he was caught in a headlock by the bar owner and struggled to get any air to flow into his lungs.

“Shhhhh,” Minhyuk shushed him gingerly as if he was cradling a child in his arms rather than choking a full-grown man to knock him out. “It won’t take long. Don’t worry, I’m going to make sure of it.” In that moment the body in his arms went limp but Minhyuk held on for a little bit longer in case the man was just pretending.

When he was sure that Jaehyun was no longer conscious, he let the body fall to the floor from the bar stool. He sighed heavily thinking about how he had thought that this guy was almost his friend. Jaehyun was a person, who has been in his life for quite the time and he could never imagine that he could have been a rat the whole entire time.

“This world is full of vermin,” Minhyuk tisked and casually went back to drinking his coffee.

Not long after Minhyuk knocked out Jaehyun the door to the bar opened again and Sera waltzed in, followed by Changkyun and Hoseok. She came to Minhyuk to collect her peck on the cheek even though they’ve seen each other not that long ago. “Aww, Min, isn’t this guy like your friend?”

“Hmmm, I don’t have friends. He was an ‘almost friend’ and a real good fuck, though. Such a shame a destiny like this one met him,” Minhyuk gently shook his head to show displeasure at the fate of one Jeong Jaehyun.

Suddenly Hyunwoo was next to Minhyuk. “Should we get him somewhere with cleanable floors then?” Hyunwoo asked practically.

“Do you guys always have to mess up a part of my bar?” Minhyuk sounded irritated but they all knew it was just a charade.

“Isn’t that why you called me?” Sera feigned being offended.

“What’s going on, hyung?” Changkyun raised his brow, clearly not understanding a thing about what is going on.

“Oh. Sera didn’t tell you?” Minhyuk was taken aback a little bit.

“No. She just told us to get up from the table and follow her. So we did,” Hoseok replied with nonchalance in his voice as if it was completely normal for them to follow Sera everywhere without questioning.

Minhyuk gave Sera a surprised glance. “What?” she shrugged. “Did you tell me who was the person that was so desperate to meet the hacker I.M Wonho? No. So I didn’t tell them either. No biggie.”

“Okay. Again - what is happening?” Changkyun pushed for answers again.

“Kyunnie, this guy is one of my… uhm… let’s call him a work friend, shall we? So Jaehyun here, my work friend, is one of my informants and I’m his. We exchange favours and pay for them accordingly by whatever we agree on that time, which means he is one of those people, who are very well informed about what is going on in and outside of our world. He came in looking for information about the identity of I.M Wonho. He looked way too desperate about getting it and I followed my gut. There aren’t too many instances that my hunch was wrong about something. And as a curious person myself, I want to know for whom he was working for. Because he wouldn’t be this frenzied if there wasn’t someone behind him,” Minhyuk explained to all of the present members, who the person lying unconscious on the floor was.

“And how did you knock him out?” Changkyun asked in a quiet voice, almost as if he was afraid to hear the answer but his curiosity didn’t let him go without it.

“Headlock and blocked the windpipe until he fainted,” it was Minhyuk’s turn to shrug as he twisted his neck to look at Hyunwoo standing behind him. “Let’s move him to my office,” then he looked to Sera, “but only if you promise not to dirty up the white oak floors too much.”

“I didn’t come here to make such promises,” Sera walked past him to the coffee machine to go get her fix.

Once everyone was in the office and Jaehyun was expertly tied on a chair by the Head of Operations of the Ryu family, Sera took it to herself to wake him up. Hoseok and Changkyun sat on one of the couches together and the younger looked a little more distressed than the older. Hyunwoo pulled out one armchair out right opposite the tied up man and Sera plopped onto it with a grateful smile while Hyunwoo and Minhyuk took their typical spots at the desk.

“Shall I wake him up?” Sera asked the bunch with a cheerful voice.

“Go ahead,” Minhyuk motioned with his hand even though she was sitting her back to him. She stood up and placed a hand on Jaehyun’s shoulder and pushed the thumb of her right hand underneath the collar bone. He jolted awake with a cry and frantically looked around the room.

“Good morning,” Sera chimed and Jaehyun’s eyes landed on her. As soon as he recognized her as Ryu Sera his eyes widened in shock and fear. “I see you know who I am.” He nodded. “Good. So now that we have all gathered here, I have a couple of questions for you. So let’s play a game… what do you say?” Sera suggested in a playful tone and Jaehyun swallowed dryly but didn’t say anything or make a movement to show that he understood what she was saying. Sera was sitting on the armchair again, legs one over the other in a ‘feel easy’ sit and Minhyuk heard the voice dramatically change with the next words. It went from playful to immediate thread. “I asked you a fucking question and I want to hear a reply. Because that’s how things are going to go for you from now on… and if you stop answering, something bad will happen to you.”

“I understand,” he croaked out.

“Excellent,” her voice was back to the playful tone as before and Minhyuk turned his eyes to look at the two hackers huddled on the couch. Hoseok seemed to be a little more indifferent about what was going on in front of him and Minhyuk thought it must be because of what he has gone through with Sera, when they went after the couple. But Changkyun… he looked like he might be sick sometime soon and nothing has even happened yet. Minhyuk considered the option that it could have been Sera’s current persona that made the younger so uncomfortable. But then again, he should have seen something like this before the last part of the plan came to. “So my first question: why do you want to meet I.M Wonho?”

Jaehyun swallowed dryly again and tried to clear his throat. “I was asked to deliver information.”

“By whom?”

“My information buyer.”

“Oh, I’m so happy you know how to play this game,” Sera clapped her hands and she stood up and made those five threatening steps to him again. “Because this is not how you play it.” She reached into the pocket of her black skinny ripped jeans and pulled out a small switch blade knife. “Who is your ‘buyer’ if that’s what you want to keep calling him or _her_? I would much rather call this person your boss, but if it gives you comfort I’ll call him a ‘buyer’.”

Minhyuk wouldn’t really say that anything in this situation gave Jeong Jaehyun any kind of comfort, but he dared not to interrupt Sera during her interrogation. So, he just calmly sat on his desk with one of the hands mindlessly stroking Hyunwoo’s upper thigh.

“It’s a _her_ ,” Jaehyun said unsure of his answer and Minhyuk noticed Sera wasn’t really happy with it either but she clearly decided to go with the game for a little bit longer. She knew he was lying but that only gave her bigger power over him and she enjoyed that hell out of it.

“If you say so…”

“I’m telling the truth,” he said desperately looking around the room, trying to find a friend in Minhyuk’s office, but even though Changkyun’s face seemed almost sympathetic, the youngest member of the family felt anything but. Even he recognized the obvious lie of the man tied up on a chair in the centre of the room.

“No, you’re not,” Sera sighed dramatically. She flipped the small knife around a couple of times before harshly stabbing it into the bicep of the man sitting in front of her. Changkyun jolted in his seat from the shock and the blood began to slow down the baby blue long sleeve shirt Jaehyun was wearing. The rest of the family remained completely unfazed by what was happening before them, even though Hoseok did look a little like he might be sick after this is over.

“Urghhh,” Jaehyun groaned in pain as Sera twisted the knife inside the wound.

“Alright, let’s try this again. Name?” her voice was kind of cheerful in the grim atmosphere and Minhyuk realized that only she could do that really.

“La Reina,” he said breathlessly.

Sera clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes hard. “Do you even know where La Reina currently is? She’s in Mexico and she left her business to us with word she only wants to raise her baby in peace and a healthy environment,” Sera gave him the version that was for people, who had and should have no idea about Kihyun being dipped into it, “so why in the fucking hell would she ever need to know who I.M Wonho is, hm?”

“Uhh, I…” Jaehyun stuttered.

“You don’t know, right?” she smiled evilly. “And do you want to find out why you don’t know?” He swallowed dryly, clearly worried about what was about to come. “You don’t know, because you tried to make a lie on the spot but didn’t put one and one together. Do you even realize who you’re talking to?” She pulled out the knife from his upper arm in a swift motion and the blood flow intensified.

Changkyun made a small whimper from all the red coming into his vision once again. “Do you think I… can I maybe…?” Changkyun asked and pointed to the door.

“No,” Hyunwoo replied for the first time and all heads turned to him. “Sorry, Kyunnie, I realize this is the first time you’re seeing something like this, but this is very meek and at least once in your life you should sit through it before we get to the end. It won’t be as traumatizing then.”

“That is, if Kihyun doesn’t change his plan again,” Minhyuk added to Hyunwoo’s words. “But Hyunwoo hyung is right, Kyunnie. You gotta just sit through it. Nothing even happened yet.”

“Hyung, you…” Changkyun turned to Hoseok and the older only shook his head.

“Let’s just sit through it, Kyun.”

“I’m happy we all agree on this,” Sera smiled at her family and then averted her attention back to the man, who was being interrogated. “You were about to tell me who really is you boss, if I remember correctly?”

Jaehyun sighed. “Ming Zhan.”

Sera scoffed and with another fast swoosh of her hand the knife back in the flesh of his bicep. “Try again.”

“I’m not lying… it’s Ming Wenran.”

“Uh-huh,” Sera didn’t believe a single word that came out of his mouth even though to Minhyuk it all seemed plausible, but she had more people got through her hands in his manner than Minhyuk. He usually took the path of slyly pulling the information out of people but that was time consuming and Sera seemed she didn’t have a lot of time to waste, especially not with someone like Jeong Jaehyun. “Again, sweetie.” She pushed on the knife, eliciting a painful cry.

“It’s the tru…” he tried to say but Sera grabbed the back of his head and kneed him harshly in the face. The sound of cracking bones and screams of pain echoed around the room. Sera sighed heavily as the blood gushed out from his nose down his face and some drops even hit the floor.

“Look, you’re not getting out of this mess, so why don’t you just stop lying to me and everyone around here and tell me the truth, hm?” she suggested again in a playful tone.

“I…”

“Okay, this is really getting too boring and I’m kind of running short on patience these days,” she remarked in a matter of fact way. She returned to her armchair and sat down. The heavily breathing man’s face was revealed to Changkyun and he made a retching sound and covered his mouth with his hand in fear he would actually throw up.

At this point it was Hyunwoo’s turn to sigh. It was soft, almost as if he reached his last straw and had to resolve to take measures he didn’t want to take. He stood up from his chair and walked over to stand next to sitting Sera. “What are you thinking?” he asked her checking Jaehyun out.

“I don’t know, I guess I’m just staring at his legs,” she shrugged.

“Why?” Hyunwoo sounded amused.

“They look pretty good in those pleather pants, right? My only concern is the fashion sense, which he is clearly lacking along with the survival and self-preservation instinct,” she stated plainly.

“Imagine him without them then,” Hyunwoo hinted, also adding a mischievous twist to his voice. He wiggled his brows when Sera looked up to him.

She grinned. “Oh yeah.”

“Y-you want him to get naked?” Changkyun stuttered confusingly, his eyes switching back and forth from Sera to Hyunwoo.

“No, silly…” Sera laughed at Changkyun’s assumption and the turned to Jaehyun and her manner of speech changed from kind to threatening. “I’m imagining him without legs." Her smile was so beautiful it made Changykun’s blood freeze.

“You better tell her what she wants to know before her imagination turns to reality, Jae,” Minhyuk warned the tied up man in a leisurely voice.

His eyes travelled from Sera to Minhyuk, they pleaded the bar owner silently but then it seemed that a realization hit Jeong Jaehyun. He then lowered his eyes to the floor in a low voice finally gave up the answer the whole family present was waiting for: “Ryu Sungmoon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... what did you think of the finish lane of Wonho's and I.M's hard work? Did you like the 'grand hack' and those little applied tweaks that Wonho made? Also Jaehyun showed his true alliances - how will this affect the family? Sera's monster got loose there for a bit and, oh boy, was it ever hungry, right?
> 
> Please let me know what you thought of this chapter in the comments. I love reading them and hearing your opinions 🤍😃
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading today's chapter and will come back next time to find out the second final stage of Kihyun's plan. Also an unexpected revelation comes to light! 🤔🤔
> 
> Until next time ヾ(￣▽￣) Bye~Bye~


	17. The Showdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kihyun and Sera find out something unexpected at the end of their journey...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little Psycho is back with the pre-last chapter of the story. 🤍🤗 I hope you enjoy it 😄

|Changkyun POV|

Changkyun did throw up.

And it was all his noona’s fault. Right after the guy tied up in the chair in Minhyuk’s office that over saw his bar gave up the information that he was planted to follow Minhyuk around by Ryu Sungmoon, Sera laughed without humor and walked around the chair and stood behind Jaehyun, who really just wanted to know who I.M Wonho was, but he didn’t even manage to find out they were in fact two people because as Sera reached her spot behind him and place one hand beneath his chin and the other on the crown of his head, Changkyun saw fear flash through the man’s face before he closed his eyes slowly and swallowed.

The realization somehow didn’t hit Changkyun and only when the man’s limp body sagged against the restraints he understood that the swift short motion broke the man’s neck and he died instantly. The moment his mind processed that this was what had just happened, he threw up all of the breakfast he munched while the revelation of Yoo Hongjoon was being broadcasted.

A hand stroked his back up and down in a soothing soft manner, even after the heaving ceased. “Noona, how…”

“ _How_ do I do this? _How_ could I do it? _How what_?” she spat towards the kneeling youngest member of their family. Minhyuk shot her a mean stare but she seemed not to back down from where she was standing. “Didn’t you hear the name that he spoke? Fuck, how could I have been so stupid and not realize that the old bastard might have a card up his sleeve.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed a contact. “Kihyun. We need to hurry. That son of a bitch had someone looking into Minhyuk and I.M Wonho,” she said and then listened to what Kihyun was saying for a short moment. “No. It all needs to go down this week.” Kihyun most likely argued back. “I don’t give a fuck, Kihuyn. I don’t want to go to anyone’s funeral.” She hung up and looked at Minhyuk and Changkyun on the floor, then jumped with her stare to Hyunwoo and Hoseok, who had only a slightly disturbed look on his face.

“This week?” Minhyuk asked, still petting Changkyun’s back gingerly.

“We don’t have a choice really. After this, there can be so much more. And to be completely honest with you,” she sighed heavily. “It’s about fucking time.”

At this point Minhyuk stood up and made his way to Sera. “Angel, this is not how things should be done. We have a plan-“

“And the plan has to move up,” she cut him off rudely. “We’re sitting ducks right now. Our heads are the bull’s eye of every hit man right now for sure. Do you even know how many mercenaries I have seen go through that mansion? How many Ryu Sungmoon knows? And how many would do his deeds for the money he would offer them? Do you think he doesn’t know about your connection to Kihyun?”

“Sera, you’re getting a little paranoid, I think,” Hyunwoo tried to calm her down.

“Maybe I am,” she gave him a strong no-bullshit look. “But I also don’t want anyone to die, Hyunwoo. Been there, done that.”

With these words she turned around on her heel and walked out of Minhyuk’s office.

“What do you think is going to happen now?” Hoseok asked in a small voice.

“I would rather stick to the plan, but Sera’s lost her cool. And that might affect Kihyun, too,” Minhyuk lamented over the matter a little bit. He brought the nail of his thumb in between his teeth and clicked his tongue. “This is not good. If we speed up the plan too much, the result we have been working towards might not work out. I hope Kihyun will keep being the King of Cool that he is normally.”

“Minhyuk, now you’re beginning to stress out too. Calm the hell down,” Hyunwoo spoke with a certain hardness to his voice that strangely made Minhyuk so calm on the inside. Minhyuk would never admit it out loud but those couple of times he had slept with Hyunwoo (and yes, it was very occasional and never happened anymore, which brought a little bit of sadness into Minhyuk’s life) he was completely okay with submitting to that strength that Hyunwoo was emitting. He was smitten by the dominance that he radiated. Those were the only nights Mihyuk has ever let himself be dominated by another man, but they represented his solace and comfort. He felt safe with his hyung, but as per their agreement they never told anyone about what happened between them. And on many occasions the family members guessed a completely different scenario than Minhyuk on his knees, calling his hyung _Master_ and begging him to let him come. No one, literally no one, would ever even think of Hyunwoo in this character and that kind of ‘unknown territory’ made it even more exciting for Minhyuk.

“Hyung, I’m just worried and my mind is racing,” Minhyuk explained. “Let’s get Changkyun to Wonnie to see whether he needs medical treatment. Then we should go to Kihyun. He’ll probably call anyway.”

“I agree,” Hoseok said as he walked over to Changkyun to pick him up of the ground and support him on one side.

|Kihyun POV|

Minhyuk flew into Kihyun’s office, taking the latter by surprise as he was typing away on his computer, replying to an email that he didn’t really require his attention but he needed to make everything seem as if he was not a part of the money laundering through the company, that he was simply an employee that ran the company for the owner Ryu Sungmoon and the investors and shareholders.

“Something is wrong with Sera,” Minhyuk announced and came to stand by Kihyun at his desk.

“What do you mean?” Kihyun glanced at him with confusion on his face.

“She has called you?” Minhyuk quirked a brow at his brother.

“Oh that? Yeah, but I told her I have to think about it,” Kihyun was beginning to get unsettled by Minhyuk implying that something was wrong with his little sister.

“One of the guys that I had information from pretty often, we could say that we had more or less a similar goal, but that’s not important anymore since the guy’s life energy doesn’t surf the world anymore, right?” Minhyuk spoke fast, so fast indeed Kihyun had a hard time catching what was important and what wasn’t. “This guy came looking for information about I.M Wonho and I smelled something fishy about how he pushed for the information, even asking for a favour saying he’d pay any price for any information I could give him. So I called Sera and discreetly told her about what was going on. Before she came in with Hyunwoo hyung, Hoseok and Changkyun, I knocked the guy out and waited for her. My little Angel played with him for bit asking who the buyer for the details on I.M Wonho was and she killed him right after he told us that it was Ryu Sungmoon. She just snapped his neck and then started to get paranoid that we need to move up with the plan and that we should be worried that the old bastard is breathing on our necks. And well, I thought she would call you first, you know.”

Kihyun took a moment to process the information that Minhyuk belched onto him. “Let me call her again, she didn’t tell me this,” he said as he started to reach for his phone and dialed Sera’s number. “Are Kyun and Hoseok okay? Did they see the whole thing?”

“Yeah. Hoseok was surprisingly okay. Well, at least he seemed to be fine, but Kyun… oh my God. The poor guy threw up all of his breakfast onto my poor beautiful office floor. Thank fuck for my idea to not put a carpet there, otherwise I’d have a hell of a time to clean it,” Minhyuk sighed and placed his face into his palms in desperation.

The phone kep ringing at Kihyun’s ear, so he decided to reply to Minhyuk before Sera picked up the call. “It’s just wonderful how you’re worried about the floor of your office rather than your youngest brother, you know?”

“Oh, c’mon he’s fine. Hyunwoo and Hoseok took him to Hyungwon to check if he’s okay whether it was only that he threw up from disgust or if it was some bug that he caught somewhere,” Minhyuk shrugged and waved it off.

“ _Kihyun?_ ” Sera finally picked up.

“Sera, are you okay?” Kihyun asked, worry lacing his voice.

“ _Minhyuk called you?_ ” she questioned with annoyance.

“No. He came to my office raging about Kyun throwing up on his office floor because you snapped someone’s neck right in front of him,” Kihyun explained the situation that occurred to her. He turned the speaker phone on, when Minhyuk signalled to him that he wanted to listen in on the conversation too. “You didn’t tell me this part.”

“ _That’s the circle of life. And if he wanted to remain in business, he should have learned exactly what it meant that someone was born on the wrong side of my point of view_ ,” she responded with harshness Kihyun hasn’t heard from her in a very long time. She’s been calmer lately, mainly due to her outings with Hoseok’s new targets (when he played the world’s saviour, to which none of the other family member responded positively) and due to the update in her relationship with Hyungwon. There might have been other factors that brought her some extra inner peace but Kihyun considered these two the main ones.

“What happened?” Kihyun was starting to grow cautious, he definitely didn’t want to get on Sera’s bad side, especially now.

“ _Didn’t Min tell you?_ ”

“About Ryu Sungmoon being the buyer of the intel?” Kihyun clarified.

“ _Yes_ ,” she confirmed.

“Yeah. He told me about that and so did you. But it may have been a coincidence Sera. I told you this before,” Kihyun told her softly in effort to bring her raging emotions down a little bit.

“W _ell… it wasn’t. I just talked to the old motherfucker and he specifically told me to get rid of Minhyuk ASAP, saying the man is a thread to our business; that he apparently knows something he never tells and we cannot afford a man like that roaming around our turf, so yeah… I have direct orders from to take Minhyuk out. And this, my dear, dear brother is exactly what I have been worrying about. That little dead bastard didn’t need information from Minhyuk about I.M Wonho, he went there to set a target on Minhyuk’s back for the hired hitmen. Are you satisfied with the reason behind my paranoia or are all of you just keep calling me crazy?”_ the rage in her voice gave Kihyun chills over the line and he raised his eyes from the phone to look into Minhyuk’s eyes.

Minhyuk’s face was frozen with shock and Kihyun’s blood ran cold because of the fear for his brother’s life. This was truly the worst feeling and Kihyun has felt this kind of fear more than enough in the recent months, beginning with Sera’s abduction, then Hyunwoo’s, Jooheon’s and Sera’s shootout in the blinds… he was afraid it would go further and further.

“ _Now you understand why we must speed up the plan?_ ” Sera pressed on.

“Yes. I agree with you. I’m going to deal with the necessary stuff. Let’s aim for tomorrow night. Minhyuk will need protection tonight, though,” Kihyun pinched the bridge of his nose.

“ _Call Hyunwoo. I can’t tonight_.”

“Why? You got another outing with Hoseok?”

“ _No. I have to get the warehouse ready for the guest of the night tomorrow_ ,” he snickered and Kihyun nodded even though he knew she couldn’t see him.

“ _You better speed up the process of your job resigning too, Ki. We need to get the hell out of the country as soon as we’re done with our part of the plan. Something tells me that there is more behind this than meets the eye. And you know my instincts are rarely wrong, right?_ ” she reminded him of her crystal clear sixth that have saved them more times in the past.

“I’m going to call Hyunwoo. Finish your prep and tonight go with Hyungwon to your place, where you have your weapons. Hoseok will go to Jooheon’s place and Minhyuk will be with Hyunwoo for protection,” Kihyun named the plan for the night and Minhyuk almost looked like he wanted to note something on top, but after the glare that Kihyun sent him he decided to stay quiet.

“ _Okay. You’ll make the calls?_ ” Sera cleared with him.

“Yes. Good luck, sis,” Kihyun wished her good luck, which was something he hasn’t done in years, but right now they needed a little bit luck to make everything work the way it needed for them to get out alive and in one piece.

Sera hung up and Kihyun turned to Minhyuk expectantly awaiting his protesting words.

“I can protect myself,” were the protests Minhyuk wanted to get out of him.

“I know, but you’ll be safer with Hyunwoo hyung. Minhyuk, please… just for once do what we say in this matter. We just want to keep you safe,” Kihyun begged him with desperation in his voice.

“Ki?” Minhyuk’s eyebrows scrunched at the sight of his not so much younger brother being this worried. “I’ve never seen you this worried. Is everything alright? Do you need help?”

“I’m fine, it’s just… I haven’t seen this coming and I _should have_ seen it from miles away,” Kihyun sighed and rubbed his eyes in frustration with himself. “I have been so focused on the finish line that I’ve lost the peripheral vision and couldn’t see the others catching up to us. I need to concentrate on what is ahead of us right now, right in this very moment, so that we can successfully pull this off, but I cannot do that unless I’m entirely sure that all of you are safe. So please, Min… just once… go to Hyunwoo and be safe with him, okay?”

“Okay,” Minhyuk whispered understandingly and walked to Kihyun’s chair where he put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. “Ki… we’re gonna get out of this alive. I promise. All of us will have our happily ever after.”

Kihyun only nodded as he raised his head and sighed deeply. He reached for his phone, dreading to have the upcoming phone call.

|Changkyun POV|

When Changkyun got home from Hyungwon’s office, he felt a better. He got an IV drip right there in the office to rehydrate his body and give it vitamins, even though he protested that it wasn’t necessary since the youngest wasn’t sick and it was just his stomach turning on him and rejecting the idea of someone dying just like that, even after hearing stories from his noona or his hyungs. It was more difficult to stomach when it was right in front of him.

Hyunwoo and Hoseok came to Kihyun’s apartment with Changkyun, but left quickly upon Kihyun’s orders that they have received during the car ride. Minhyuk was discovered by Ryu Sungmoon and they needed to move quicker but safer, so Hoseok would stay the night with Jooheon, while Sera and Hyungwon move to her place and Minhyuk would go to Hyunwoo’s place for the night.

And tomorrow was D-day - the final showdown that the family had been working towards for so many years. Even Changkyun himself was excited. It might not have been anything as grand revealing as the spectacle Hoseok and he pulled off, with national news covering the story all day today and the news streaming every hour in every TV and electronic billboard in the country, text messages sent to each phone and news paper printed only with the story. The whole day no one spoke about anything else than the dirt of Yoo Hongjoon. And the world would continue to do so for much longer.

Nevertheless, the ending was going to be climactic for other reasons that grandness. All of the members would get what they have been working for a big part of their lives. Even though the original plan that counted with the climax next week was grand, this would have to suffice.

Changkyun sat down on the couch, pulled his laptop onto his lap and turned it on. He had to get his mind off of things that were happening right now and the next best thing that he could do without Kihyun next to him was hacking into something, somewhere where people had high security, something that required all of his attention trained on the target.

Someone would probably call him reckless to do this in this current situation but not long ago Changkyun came up with a program that would immediately kick him out from wherever he was trying to get in if it detected the possibility that he would be discovered while he was snooping around in the system or that his multiple randomly generated IPs originating all around the world would be somehow traced back to him. It was a difficult one to write even for someone as skilled as Changkyun but he used the opportunity to hone his skills and in the end succeeded with an attempt on creating a hacking protection masterpiece. Of course it could be used as a guard dog for when somebody would try to get to him, but that was a whole different story.

He set his target and got to work.

Hours must have flown by because Changkyun heard the door open and close. Then a pair of feet walked into the living room.

“What are you doing?” Kihyun asked him and even without looking back Changkyun recognized that his hyung was smiling while he asked that question.

“I was just looking into some information that the US government held about some of their secret researches, but honestly it’s nothing interesting. There are no aliens, no zombie virus research or stuff that would bring someone back to life. It’s quite the disappointment,” Changkyun sighed, displaying his discontentment with the current situation of his intel gathering.

“Did you actually think there would be zombies or aliens?” Kihyun chuckled shortly as he walked over to the couch.

“I was hopeful… I mean,” Changkyun ran a hand trough his hair that Kihyun noticed now started to get too long, but he liked the younger’s longer hairstyle for now, “after watching all of those movies I kind of hoped there would be something. At least like an empty folder would have been satisfying but there was nothing. Absolute zero. I guess people really have good imagination rather than looking into facts.”

Kihyun sat next to his lover and ruffled the messy hair lovingly. “Kyunnie, filmmakers have always been creative and the myths that the US likes to publish about themselves are just that - myths. They would never let anyone to see into their files. Especially not filmmakers.”

“I know, I’m just saying it’s disappointing they wouldn’t even have an empty folder,” Changkyun smiled at Kihyun, who leaned in for a quick kiss.

“As if they would have it lying around waiting for a certain Im Changkyun to find it while he snoops through their very super duper secure folders. Don’t you think they would have it somewhere else?” Kihyun quirked a brown scratching the itch on Changkyun’s ego. He was riling the younger one up only to mock him later.

“Maybe they have that,” Changkyun tried to look like he gave it an actually thought but then laughed at the suggestion and kissed Kihyun, this time the kiss was deeper as the younger licked the lower lip of his lover right before gently grazing it with his teeth, just the way Kihyun liked it.

Kihyun made a small content huff and reached with his hand to the back of Changkyun’s neck and pulled him closer to his body as he deepened the kiss, making the hacker moan sensually against Kihyun plush lips.

When they broke apart for air, Changkyun grabbed the opportunity. “Seems like you have your own classified agenda right now, Yoo Kihyun,” he said with a smug smirk plastered on his swollen red lips.

“I don’t think there’s anything classified about it for people over 18 really,” Kihyun chuckled as he attacked Changkyun’s soft spot just below his ear and sucked on the sensitive spot, sending beautiful shivers down the younger body as his mouth fell open in a silent lustful moan.

|Kihyun POV|

The next day came earlier than Kihyun expected. He didn’t want to wake up, didn’t want to get out of bed, didn’t want to get dressed, didn’t want to travel to the office and for sure didn’t feel like handing in his resignation.

He had a completely different plan about how the resignation from his post of CEO of Ryu Holdings was going to go, but he guessed that desperate times asked for desperate measures???

Kihyun was always disappointed when something was not working out the way he wanted it to or the way he planned it to. But no matter how Kihyun despised what was awaiting for him today, it needed to be done.

So with great displeasure, he tangled himself out of the warm bed sheets that were wrapped around him and his younger lover, who still oh so peacefully slept. Kihyun really just wanted to wrap around Changkyun and fall back asleep. He decided that today he wouldn’t wake the younger up to have breakfast with him, rather he would shower quickly and speedily head to the office without having breakfast himself, opting for delivery to the office by one of the assistants, while he worked on his resignation letter.

Kihyun ended up leaving the apartment in a record time of 25 minutes bed to door and Changkyun was still sleeping.

Upon his arrival to the office he had found a couple of report lying on his desk from the financial department that started to point out the drainages that were the amazing work of Wonho. He didn’t even need to go through them to know how much was missing and that it had been some unidentified hack.

He quickly turned on his computer and got to writing a rather heartfelt apology letter along with the resignation that would be submitted to the board of investors and shareholders the next day, but Kihyun wouldn’t be there to see any of that. After today, he had no plans to return to this building.

Hoseok, in his Wonho mode, did his part on making sure that Kihyun was squeaky clean and there was no possibility of Kihyun being traced down on the money laundering, this news would be delivered to the police today and tomorrow Kihyun would not be the CEO of Ryu Holdings. Easy as that.

After hours of working on manually saving and deleting things of his desk computer and copying the important stuff to his laptop before he installed the cleaning malware from Changkyun, his phone rang on the table and the display read Hyunwoo’s name.” _We’re beginning with the extraction_ ,” his hyung announced without any greeting. Kihyun checked his watch.

_The time is here._

Kihyun picked up Changkyun and Hoseok on his way to the warehouse that Sera had prepared for their special guest tonight. She mainly just secured the surroundings and made sure there would be no one unwanted disturbing their showdown.

When he arrived with the two hackers the rest of the family had already gathered in the warehouse with a whining man in a very expensive suit lying with a black bag on his head in the dirt of the warehouse floor, which was full of dust and the residue of previous work that was done there.

Kihyun’s confident footsteps echoed in the big hall. The man stirred in the direction of the sound, but he was quickly kicked into his side by Sera for moving around. He grunted in pain and Kihyun supposed broken ribs, because his sister’s kick didn’t even look that strong.

They planned for Kihyun to have a chair right in front of where Ryu Sungmoon would kneel - a simple chair, but compared to the conditions in which the motherfucker would be, it would look like a freaking throne - Jooheon’s idea by the way.

While the rest of the family gathered around the chair in silence, Kihyun sat down and Sera harshly pulled her lying uncle into a kneeling position. She removed the bag from his head and walked a couple of steps to the side but out of his view.

The man gave the group of 7 men in front of him a good look before settling his eyes on Kihyun. “You?”

Kihyun knew what he meant by that one word. “Not only me… all of us,” Kihyun gestured to his family. “Maybe you recognize some of the faces here, but some must be new to you. But from each and every one of us you have taken precious people, just because…”

“I don’t remember anything like that,” Ryu Sungmoon spat out, still acting as if he had the upper hand in this situation.

“Oh, so you want to tell me you don’t remember my father, your personal doctor, who worked for you day and night, on your beck and call? The one you murdered in cold blood?” Hyungwon spoke first, his disgust for Ryu Sungmoon was so thick one could hardly slide a knife through it.

“Or Dr. Im, the famous scientist, who was breathing on your neck with his discoveries,” Changkyun pointed out his father.

“You took me away from my parents just because they couldn’t pay you back the very moment you asked for it. They only asked for extension on their loan, but you’d rather take their son and kill them in a ‘car accident’,” Hyunwoo voiced his story too.

“You ruined my parents’ business that they built with their blood, sweat and tears from the ground up and didn’t spare their lives either,” Jooheon joined the rest.

“And what about the little girl you raped…” Minhyuk finished with a bitter voice.

But this, all o this, did absolute nothing to Ryu Sungmoon. “Which one?” he had the guts to smirk at Minhyuk with a sly face, to which Minhyuk thrashed against Hyunwoo’s immediate hold. But Sera could respond - she kicked the kneeling man between his shoulder blades and sent him harshly to the ground, his face right there in the dirt, some pebbles broke through the skin, causing a couple of small cuts that were now dirty with the dust too. But look at everyone caring about that.

When the man composed himself back into a kneel with his hands still tightly tied behind his back, it was Kihyun’s turn to speak.

“It is sad that you don’t remember _my_ mother though,” Kihyun sighed theatrically as he sat on his ‘throne’ in front of the kneeling Ryu Sungmoon. The man’s very expensive suit ruined by the dust and dirt gathered on the floor of the warehouse. Sera walked away from her uncle and appeared in his eyesight. His eyes went wide in shock as she came to stand by Kihyun’s side. “Her death is what brought me to you anyway.”

“Your mother?” Ryu Sungmoon spat out. “What does she have to do with this if I don’t even know her?”

Kihyun laughed without humour but full of malice. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember Yoo Kiyoung?” His eyebrows raised in question. Everyone could see the world of Ryu Sungmoon get shaken with realization. “Ahh, I see now you remember the woman you threw away as soon as you realized she would no longer satisfy you.”

“I never meant for anything to happen,” he said with fake apology and Kihyun’s stomach turned from disgust of the sight of his own father.

“And yet, _I_ happened. You should have been more careful about where you put your cock,” Kihyun leaned back in his chair, taking an arrogant stance and showing off his superior position in this situation. The realization hit Ryu Sungmoon one more time as his jaw dropped when he at last recognized Kihyun’s facial features that terribly resembled the woman he once knew.

He took a breath in and his expression turned to spite again. “So what now? Are you going to kill me?”

Kihyun nodded to approve of his thinking. “I thought about it to be honest. I really did. And for all these years I have been saving my first kill to be you, but…”

“But I expect you’re going to leave it to your hunchgirl,” he pointed with his chin to Sera, who still stood by Kihyun’s side with her arms crossed over her chest, “rather than to get your hands dirty and my fucking niece, turns on me. Fuck…”

“No,” Kihyun shook his head and continued in a firm voice, “I actually came up with something much better than your immediate death.”

“And what would that be, _boy_?” he challenged his son with mockery lacing his raspy voice.

“I’m happy to see you after such a long time,” a deep voice sounded from the darkness on the side. No one from the family turned around to see the Godfather walk up to the kneeling man. The old man stared at Ryu Sungmoon with a certain disgust in his eyes.

Ryu Sungmoon turned his attention back to Kihyun. “You? You would do this?” he said with a thick disbelief.

“An enemy of my enemy is my friend?” Kihyun shrugged nonchalantly, using the very familiar proverb. “I think it’s better we leave you two to… talk.” Kihyun stood up from the chair and was ready to walk away from the scene and leave it all to the Godfather, as per their agreement - Kihyun would deliver the old bastard of a father to the Godfather and he would do with his old ‘boss’ as he saw fit. They have been on neighbouring sands for longer than Kihyun had been alive, so he believed the Godfather would know best in how to deal with Ryu Sungmoon in the worst possible way. Kihyun didn’t want to taint himself or any of the family members with the death of Ryu Sungmoon, but had the old man promise him that in exchange for all of their lands and business his father would suffer in the worst way possible before finally meeting the end of his life.

As the family started to walk away, the kneeling man called out. “Sera! You want to why you’re special to him? You two didn’t meet by accident, he picked you out of the crowd. All those years ago, he _picked_ you knowing well who you were.”

Sera scoffed at the attempt of her uncle to turn her against Kihyun. “I know.”

“What?” he didn’t understand.

“I knew the whole fucking time that he picked me and why he did it. But you know what… he _picked me_. When I was a kid and had no one, he picked _me_ ,” she said with a pride added to her strong voice.

“And you wonder why? You were a little psycho back then, too, only had malicious intents with instincts to kill. Like a well trained dog.”

“I’ve known about all of it for 15 years, which is exactly as long as I’ve known how it’s possible that you came to the house of my parents that night so fast without anyone giving you real notice and didn’t look the slightest bit shaken that your only older brother and his wife were slaughtered in a pool of blood in the main hall. But what you didn’t expect was to see, though, was a little 8 years old girl sitting among lifeless bodies of full grown and well trained assassins lying around her while she held one of the swords of her father’s ritual collection in one hand and in the other a gun that was way too heavy for her tiny hand back then. Only then you picked me. Only after you killed your older brother because you feared he would come back from his happy and peaceful life just to take something he’s given up. Only then I was interesting to you… because you thought you could make me into _your own_ personal dog,” she spoke with confidence and hatred. The anger that she had had when she was younger dissipated as she grew up and became the cool-headed monster she was today.

“You haven’t stepped up much,” Ryu Sungmoon had the audacity to scoff back. “You’re _his dog_ now.”

Sera laughed shortly at the statement the kneeling man made. “Only as much as he’s mine. But just to fuel your curiosity… as I said, I was 10 years old when Kihyun told me who you are and showed me evidence of what you have done that night. And then, only then he told me who he was and whom he was after. I’ve know very well the whole time, who I’m siding with and what our mutual goals are…” she sighed and then walked two steps closer to Ryu Sungmoon only to look down at him with a condemning glare. “You spoke of family every sick chance you got, but the only thing you were ever right about was this: family _is_ forever. And I picked mine, while you _darned_ yours.”

Sera turned away again to leave the man to his fate and follow the rest of her family out.

“Your father was a good man,” the Godfather said with a hint of sadness to his voice.

This stopped her dead in her tracks as she slowly turned her body to the old man with his right hand man Son by his side. “You knew my father?”

“What man doesn’t know his own son?” the Godfather chuckled at her question.

Kihyun felt as if the wind was knocked out of his lungs, and for sure Kihyun wasn’t the only one stunned by the statement that came out of the old man.

“You know, it is rather sad to have your own son go against you and split your very profitable lands, making everything a target for hungry vultures,” the Godfather began speaking with a rather heavy sigh. “The Ryus have been ruling this part of the country, well… almost the whole country, in the forms of grey eminences such as yourself, Kihyun, for quite a few generations. Of course, we tampered into drugs but mainly we have been the money backbone of the country’s economical plan. There’s still so much money that the country owes me that had this little shit,” he pointed out his son on the dirty floor of the warehouse, “not ruined most of what we had for greed, you… both of you, could have lived happy and peaceful lives. No one would have ended up the way they did if it wasn’t for his greed. And for that, I am sorry to each and every one of you,” he looked into the eyes of every family member, holding there just for long enough that all of them could notice that his words were sincere.

“But you will stand up to your promise?” Kihyun suddenly felt a little scared that the motherfucker wouldn’t die.

The Godfather’s stare softened a little when he looked upon Kihyun. “Of course. I know, and my wife has chastised me for it many times during our long marriage, that you should not make favourites when it comes to your children but for sure I could say that my eldest son, Sunghyun, was wiser and made better decisions all throughout his life, while Sungmoon definitely lacked the rational thinking and has always been driven by greed. I just wish I would have noticed it earlier. And maybe years ago I would not have been able to give the order to kill one of my own, but it’s been a very long time that Sungmoon had been of my blood.”

It was obvious that the old man, Sera’s and Kihyun’s grandfather, meant what he’s said.

“That’s good to hear,” Sera nodded in acknowledgement and glanced up at the right hand man of the Godfather. “You know, if you had just searched a little better, I believe you would have found your nephew.”

The man scoffed. “Oh, I found him… years ago in fact. He’s doing well enough and no longer needs the attention of his uncle. He made quite the life for himself.”

The two received confused looks from the family and only when Minhyuk chuckled at the exchange Kihyun understood. He almost slapped himself across the forehead. Of course he knew that the man was Hyunwoo hyung’s uncle but it literally just fell together right in this moment.

“Well then… we should be on our way,” Hyunwoo suggested with a sure voice. “We have a lot to pack.”

“Of course,” the Godfather smiled at the family, once more looking into each pair of eyes. “Leave him destiny in my hands. I will make my amends with him. I wish you all the very best in your upcoming years.”

“Thank you. And I believe our paths have no further need to intertwine,” Kihyun squared his shoulders as he stared at the old man.

“I hope so too. Safe travels, Mr. Yoo,” the Godfather nodded his head in recognition of the power and position gathered by the young man.

“Tread carefully. The deep waters are dire and dangerous,” Kihyun warned him even though he realized that the old man probably knew this well on his own.

“Farewell,” the Godfather raised his hand in the final greeting and all of the family members finally made their way to the warehouse gate and in the fresh wind of the night headed to their cars to soon start their new lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Godfather is Kihyun's and Sera's grandfather? 😲 The family got their revenge, even if it wasn't in the style they have planned all along. What did you think of the pre-last chapter? Did you like it or would you change the ending? 🤔
> 
> Please let me know in the comments what your thought of this chapter - I love reading your opinions and interacting with you 🤍
> 
> BUT WAIT!!! It's not over yet. One more chapter of Little Psycho is awaiting and it's the final chapter where the family organizes their future. So please come back to find out about that. 🤫
> 
> I hope you liked today's chapter and I will see you in the last one soon! Until then... ヾ(￣▽￣) Bye~Bye~


	18. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What feels like the end is often the beginning...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, who has reached the final chapter of Little Psycho. I want to thank you for coming for the last one (and the longest one) and I hope it won't let you down. 🤞 I don't want to stall you any longer, so let's see each other in the ending notes 🤙

|Minhyuk POV|

The family got out of the warehouse and slowly walked toward their cars. The night sky was dark and heavy with storm clouds and the light pollution usually created by the lights of the big city barely visible. They were so far out of ‘civilization’ in the countryside that none of them was actually looking forward to the drive back.

“No matter how much I try to wrap my mind around it, I can’t believe that the Godfather is a Ryu… that he is your grandfather,” Minhyuk shook his head, his face showing how much the slip of this missing piece of information troubled him. “How could I have not known? With all the digging around…?”

“Min,” Kihyun placed a hand on his shoulder and his voice sounded heavy with emotion that Minhyuk’s subconscious couldn’t name right away. “If anybody should have known it’s me or Sera. There is nothing we can do anymore and maybe it’s for the best.”

“Do you think he’ll get what he deserves?” Changkyun asked, speaking for the first time after a long time, the tone of his voice constricted and dark, darker than what the family had been used to with Changkyun.

“He will,” Sera replied, very sure of her answer and the rest of the family turned to her with a slight question in their eyes.

“When I was younger, I asked about the Godfather a couple of times when the bastard was teaching me about the Ryu lands and the business,” Hyunwoo got to explaining. He was the appointed Head of Operations, once the dog to Ryu Sungmoon, so of course he would know something. “And the only thing he told me was that we must leave him and his lands alone and never think to cross over and he would do the same - leave us alone and in peace. He said the Godfather ruled with blood and death, cruel to the bone and merciless in his borders. So, I never asked another time… I took it as something that was a given.”

“He told me the same thing,” Kihyun nodded.

“So he will pay?” Changkyun tried to clear this matter of the table one more time.

“You can walk back in and ask?” Jooheon suggested with a smirk to the youngest, who shot him an annoyed ‘really?’ glare.

“Ha-ha. I’m asking because this is not the first plan we had and I think I’ve liked that one more,” Changkyun protested, mentioning the plan the family had plotted a longer time ago, the one that Changkyun trusted and believed would be good Earthly punishment for the fuck that took his parents away from him.

“Kyunie, I understand how you feel, but it’s better this way,” Hoseok tried his best to calm the youngest down.

“How is it better?” Changkyun still demanded his answers.

“For one, our hands remain clean when it comes to this situation. We only delivered Ryu Sungmoon to create a coup in the family. That would symbolize that the Ryu family is heading to break apart, which is a part of the original plan - ruin what Ryu Sungmoon had been building his entire life,” Kihyun began explaining how this was a much better solution to things that the original plan that was very bloody. To Kihyun, this alteration to his original plan perfectly fit into his character as a person, who always planned ahead for the unknown… or tried to do so to his best ability. “For two, we just gained a good ally if we’re ever in times of need. And for three, we have one less monster to deal with in the future.”

Changkyun was about to breathe in to give the older more questions when he heard Sera snicker. “Stop milling it over, Changkyunnie. There is no point to go over it again and again. The deed is done. We are done and we have to go. The sooner we leave this country the better. We have long ways to go before we’re free of this life,” she reminded all of them that their journey was far from over for now and silence ruled over the family for a short moment.

“Okay,” Changkyun sighed with a little bit of annoyance to his attitude and moved towards Kihyun’s car.

“Let’s meet at Kihyun’s in the morning to go over the whole plan from here on out,” Jooheon suggested and everyone agreed.

They got into their respective cars and drove off all the while screams were coming out of the warehouse, where they left Ryu Sungmoon to be dealt with by his own father.

The next morning Minhyuk woke up from a nightmare with a terrible feeling. He felt the heat of a fire in his dream and instantly touched the scars on his forearms to check if any of them re-opened, but nothing - all of them were smooth and still ugly. He was so sure the fire was real that he even went to check the whole apartment, but nothing. It must have been a very life-like vivid dream that he’s had. On top of the feeling of fire an emotion settled into his gut, one that he hasn’t felt in a very long time - loss. It must have come from the dream, because Minhyuk couldn’t explain it in any other way. He felt the same heaviness as he felt the day his little sister passed away in his arms.

Deciding that the best thing to do in that moment was to go have coffee and get ready to head out and go to Kihyun’s plans to get the full details of Jooheon’s and Kihyun’s collaboration on their future with the money they acquired and freedom that was just a hair away. Minhyuk made himself a small espresso with the machine he had in his kitchen and sighed heavily.

He liked the way his apartment looked, he liked how lived in it was and even though he didn’t think he would grow attached to something other than the family, his heart somewhat pulled at the thought that he should be leaving this apartment forever very soon. Following this train of thoughts Minhyuk tried to remember the room he’d had in his parents’ house when he was young, he tried to recollect how the kitchen and living room looked but no picture came to his mind except the room that belonged to his sister and on top of that the only image that came with it was the bloodied up bed with his sister screaming in fear and pain.

Minhyuk shook his head to get the thoughts out of his system and rather than keep standing there in the kitchen that was clean besides the couple of water bottles and dirty coffee cups in the sink, it would serve him better to go take a cold shower.

Minhyuk arrived at Kihyun’s first out of the other members of the family and he found himself interrupting a heated kissing session in the kitchen. Kihyun shot him an irritated glare and Minhyuk walked over to the fridge, where he knew he’d be able to find something to eat for breakfast since his own fridge was empty. His eyes checked the fridge up and down, but with no luck, he turned to face the annoyed couple and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, placing one between his lips.

“Don’t mind me… continue…” Minhyuk beckoned to the couple with his hand. His lips still held the cigarette when the corners turned upwards into a smirk, his eyes never leaving the two, never indicated they were about to move away from them.

“Ehm, Min… not the best moment to get your creepy out,” Kihyun cleared his throat and kept glaring at Minhyuk.

“Okay, whatever,” Minhyuk took his eyes off of them and reached into his pocket for his lighter.

“Go out!” Kihyun suddenly yelled out and Minhyuk noticed Changkyun jump from the surprise.

“I smoked inside before, you know,” Minhyuk raised an eyebrow and just lit up his cigarette right there in front of Kihyun in his kitchen. Yes, he was trying to stir up trouble, because he felt that lately the family had only dealt with serious shit and so he just wanted to lighten up the mood a little.

“Come here, you little shit,” Kihyun unexpectedly separated from Changkyun and started chasing the slightly older man around the kitchen island.

“Ki, I thought we went over this, I’m older _and_ taller, which makes me nowhere near little,” Minhyuk mocked him.

“Hyung, I think Kihyun meant a different monster, where the size matters… at least for me,” Changkyun shrugged, hinting at the size difference, to which a lot of people liked to say didn’t matter. Kihyun chuckled at Changkyun’s thinking and the youngest gave him a pretended shy and innocent look.

“Okay, let’s get one thing straight here,” Minhyuk lifted his hand to stop anymore talking and then he took a drag from his cigarette, emphasizing the silence in the kitchen, “and that is that I don’t and will never need to know the size of Kihyun’s dick, because size doesn’t matter. But _mine is definitely bigger_.”

And the chase began again until the laughing Minhyuk was pushed to the balcony to finish this cigarette and the next one. He smoked there amused the situation he stirred up as the two went to the bedroom to get dressed.

The rest of the family arrived in a leisurely manner and dispersed around the living room. Last one to join was Hoseok, who claimed to have had a rather rough night, so he somehow overslept his alarm. He came in and kissed Sera’s cheek, like Minhyuk before him and went to sit in the armchair that was next to Hyungwon.

“So, we’re all here now. Let’s get down to it,” Kihyun walked in from the kitchen with a cup of coffee and sat on the armrest of the couch next to Changkyun. “Jooheon, take it away. After all, all of this is the fruit of your hard work.”

Jooheon smirked at the appreciation displayed by Kihyun, the grey eminence. “Alright, so we all knew what was coming, that all of our on paper identities are going to be changed and here’s the plan,” Jooheon stood up and handed a big white envelope to everyone with their name on it. The package was fairly heavy and Minhyuk was interested just how many papers they would have to go through. “The police are now investigating the disappearance of the money in Ryu Holdings and I’ve caught the wind that there was also a special unit that was looking into stock market manipulation.” With this he gave Changkyun a very meaningful stare.

“What?” Changkyun put both hands up, showing he was giving up. “I am untraceable. I made sure of that. My program and viruses were bullet proof, not even a droplet of mist would squeeze through.”

“Well, nevertheless, they have noticed the manipulation and therefore I had to step up our game too,” Jooheon nodded in acknowledgement of the maknae’s words. “What you’re holding now is who you’re going to be in the next 2 years or so. There are detailed plans and itineraries for each of you to stick to for those 2 years. Kihyun and I made the plans taking into consideration various factors and have decided to create them accordingly.”

Hyungwon was the first curious cat to pull out a small diary, which contained the plan and he flipped through it. The others watched him as his eyes went wide and the corners of his lips turned up. “I’m going with Sera?”

“We made the plans accordingly, hyung,” Jooheon replied, giving him the assurance that it was really happening, that he wouldn’t have to be apart from the woman he loved so much as he feared he would have to. “So this is how it’s going to go. Hyungwon hyung mentioned he would be going with Sera and since they are the first ones to leave this place I’ll begin with them. I won’t tell you where the others are going, not even Kihyun hyung know this. I’m the only one… take it as a safety pin.”

“Yes, we were worried about any kind of possible information leak, even if we are very careful, but it’s easier that we don’t know of each other’s exact whereabouts,” Kihyun added to Jooheon’s words.

“Hyungwon hyung and Sera will leave first and follow their shared itinerary. They, just like everyone else, will leave the country with the first identity; you will find the details in the journals of which one to use and for how long. There are included flight tickets and cash to use for the first part of the trip.” Jooheon glanced at all of his family members and everyone nodded, clearing that they understand what to do. “You travel around the world according to your assigned plan and once you reach ‘chapter 2’ in your journals you will discard of all of the identity papers from ‘chapter 1’, meaning ID cards, passports, driver’s licence, birth certificates, confirmation of insurance - everything that is labelled as your ‘identity number one’ in that envelope. _Don’t lose anything_. Out of everything that you will hold close for the next 2 years, make it those envelopes. They are our keys to disappearing from the surface of the world safely. Eventually you will go through 3 identities, so make sure you’re always sticking to the one you’re supposed to be on. Many people will not question, who you are but stuff may come up and all of the people I have created for you with my contacts have actual backgrounds, so even if you get a parking ticket, which I suggest you don’t, there will be something to find on your current person.”

“So when we discard them, what do we do with it?” Hoseok showed a passport that was soon to become him.

“Burn it. Be careful where you do it and make sure no one sees you doing so, but burn it,” Jooheon explained simply but kindly and took a breath to continue with talking about the next 2 years that were ahead of them. “During these two years, money will be wired to the debit cards all of you will own with each of your identities. Use them as you normally would, don’t only take out cash, it might draw in attention if someone decides to look into us, even though I doubt it. However, right now we cannot be careful enough - we need to disappear from both the outside world and the underworld to truly live freely. Also, in the course of the time all of the money, that Hoseok hyung and Changkyun acquired and sent to mill through the shell companies, will have arrived at their final destinations for us to use when we finally meet again in the last chapter of your journals. I have managed to find us a very nice private holiday resort at St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”

It was needless to say that the family was already imagining themselves on the beaches of the Caribbean island, meeting after 2 years, celebrating their freedom from the world. Smiles were playing on more faces than just Hyungwon’s, as the wishes of living free careless lives came so close to actually being more than wishes and dreams.

“Couple days after Hyungwon and Sera, Kihyun hyung and Kyun will leave together with their new aliases. The day after that, Minhyuk hyung will leave alone and will stay alone for the length of this trip. Hyung, I know it will be difficult for you, especially after being in the family from the beginning but there must be no contact among the cells we are divided into… I’m sorry,” Jooheon apologized, looking at Minhyuk, whose eyes radiated a little bit of sadness, but also apprehension of the situation.

“Don’t worry. I get it,” Minhyuk smiled softly at his younger brother and let him continue explaining.

“Minhyuk hyung will be followed by Hoseok hyung. I believe I left you enough time to deal with saying goodbye to whatever and whoever you will have left here, as you are the only one of us that still has family alive and unforsaken,” Jooheon turned to Hoseok, who only shook his head.

“I’ve already done that,” he relied coldly, a tone Minhyuk has never heard from him.

“Alright. And finally, Hyunwoo hyung and I will go together. We are going to be the extreme emergency team, to whom you can call in case of something terrible happening, but I would rather you don’t contact us in the span of the two years. Pretending we don’t know each other is fairly crucial right now, so please make sure you don’t get yourselves into trouble. So…” suddenly Jooheon was cut off by the ringing of his phone. He picked up and listened to what the other person had to say on the other side of the line and he smirk grew wider and a little more malevolent. “Thanks, hyung. You’re the real star,” he said and hung up after the other side said a couple more words, which made Jooheon snort a laugh.

“Is everything alright?” Hyunwoo asked, slightly concerned about the conversation Jooheon had just now.

“Better. Jaebum hyung from my old car shop called me just now. He and the guys managed to get a word into jails, since we don’t know which one Yoo Hongjoon will arrive at, that the man is a child rapist and pedophile, since that truly is one of the dirts you guys found on him as well. And we all know that this type of people have a very, very difficult time in jail,” Jooheon glanced around the room, noticing the smirks on the faces of the family members. “Let’s just say that the man will never walk properly again. From what I know, both the prisoners and the guards always let this information _slip out_ and these guys usually never sleep in peace for the rest of their lives.”

Minhyuk turned his eyes to Kihyun and he swore to God he had never seen a more satisfied face on his just slightly younger brother. The smirk was so perfectly shaped on his lips that in made Minhyuk smile wider and it was as if he shared the satisfaction with Kihyun via some internal connection. This guy was about to pay for the luxury he had been living in and for everything he had done to his daughter and grandchild.

The plan had been explained and the whole family seemed to be perfectly fine with everything, however there was a question that arose to Minhyuk’s mind, since he was used to be thinking of many possibilities that might occur within the family. “I have a question, though, Jooney.”

“Okay?”

“Have you accommodated the possibility that those two,” Minhyuk pointed to Sera and Hyungwon, “might get a child in these two years.”

A small shock appeared on Jooheon’s face as Minhyuk caught completely him off guard. “Uhmmm… please don’t make a child?” he made a face to Hyungwon and Sera, who let out an irritated huff.

“We can always practice,” Hyungwon smiled suggestively at Sera, who stabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. He laughed at it shortly and kissed her temple, whispering: “I love you, baby.”

Minhyuk didn’t miss the satisfied and happy smile that appeared on Sera’s face when she heard the words from Hyungwon. “I’m just saying, that I would love to hold my nephew or niece soon. That’s all,” Minhyuk shrugged.

Suddenly there was an eruption of laughter coming from Changkyun. “Hyung, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think noona would ever leave you with her child in your arms.”

“Yeah, you’d probably smoke a cigarette while holding it,” Hoseok chuckled at the image.

“Excuse me… I’d get a joint,” Minhyuk joined them in dissing himself, because sometimes he knew that ‘if you cannot beat ‘em, join ‘em’ worked the best with his family.

|Sera POV|

When Minhyuk said he had to go to his bar to finish up the sale of the place, which no one in the whole world (except the family) understood, Sera offered to go with her older brother. Nobody needed to hear her reason, but she said it out loud anyway. “I won’t see you, Min, for a little over 2 years after the next 2 days. And believe it or not… I will miss you.”

“I will miss you too, angel,” Minhyuk took her into a loving hug as he smoothed the silky black hair on her head. “Kyunnie, please come too, to do the stuff we agreed on.

As Sera found out, Minhyuk and Changkyun agreed that the youngest hacker would go with Minhyuk to entirely disable the security system and wipe it with a cleansing malware to get rid of any potential information that could be gathered through it. After all, Minhyuk has done a lot of dirty business in the bar that concerned his intel gathering job, among other not completely legal things, which he used to make extra cash for when it was going to be needed.

They arrived in the bar after opening hours and for Minhyuk it was the last two days of ‘work’ before he would no longer return to this bar that he’s called ‘his’ for years now. It was a bittersweet feeling for Minhyuk. He’s worked hard to get the bar where it was now and he had to leave it behind, not knowing what the next owner was going to do to it. But in the end, he wasn’t all that attached because the main goal the entire time was for it to provide cover for illegal business and information trade, so…

“I thought you would help,” Minhyuk looked with an accusatory glare at Sera, who for the last hour has been seated on the couch, reading him and Changkyun jokes off of her phone, while the two worked their tasks.

“I am helping,” she smiled sweetly with sarcasm on the edges. “I’m making the time go by faster.”

Changkyun chuckled at the statement and shook his head as he typed away on his laptop. “Noona, some days I wonder what we would do without you. But only some days.”

Minhyuk laughed and got back to his legal document sorting, when Sera suddenly sat up. Both of her brothers turned to her with a confused expression, but her alarmed face changed confusion into deep frowns. “Someone’s in,” she said, her voice was low, strong, serious and alarming to both Minhyuk and Changkyun.

“Maybe an employee?” Changkyun guessed hoping it would prove right.

“Not anymore,” it was Minhyuk’s turn to shake his head. Sera was already getting up from the couch and purposefully strode to one of the cabinets in the corners.

She moved the cabinet out of the way and there in the wall was a small metal door that looked like it could be one protecting electric cutout space, but when she opened it there were multiple SAR 9 guns and even M4 assault rifle with filled magazines. In this very moment Sera was so happy that she made Minhyuk install this small weaponry in his office ‘just in case’. Of course, she never wanted this case to occur, but shit happened in their world and you would never know when you might need it.

“We gotta get out of here. Fast. Changkyun wipe it with the ultimate virus, fuck everything that might get lost,” she ordered Changkyun in a stern voice and the maknae of their family could only gulp down the fear that was beginning to creep up his back and get to work. “How long do you need?”

“I just have to upload it. One minute at max,” he replied, hands frantically typing away access passwords on the keyboard.

“Take this, Min,” Sera handed him a SAR 9 with a full magazine and a hunters’ knife in case of close combat. Minhyuk sucked in both ranged and close fights, but having something was better than nothing. Then she pulled out her phone and called Hyunwoo, he picked up on the second ring. “Someone broke into Minhyuk’s bar right now, I’m getting them out of here, but come right away. Take Jooheon.”

“ _On it,_ ” he replied and hung up without any further questions.

Sera herself took the assault rifle, a gun that she tucked behind the belt of her jeans at her lower back and another hunters’ knife, which was attached to a holster she clasped together on her upper thigh.

“Done,” Changkyun noted and closed his laptop packing everything away.

“Let’s go then,” Sera strolled over to the door and carefully opened it. “Stay behind me and stay quiet,” she told the two with a warning in her voice. Before stepping into the hallway she listened through the crack of the door. Nodding to them she walked out, stepping carefully on the floor having the rifle pointing forward down the hall. The trio walked down the hallway, almost reaching the staircase when Sera suddenly halted. She slightly sniffed the air and then turned to face Minhyuk. “Gasoline.”

“What?” Changkyun questioned confused.

“Someone wants to burn the place down,” Minhyuk explained with a heavy expression and a frown.

A couple of gunshot sounds ripped through the air as Sera fired the rifle at a man in black she noticed near the bottom of the stairs with her skilled eyes. “ _DOWN!_ ” Sera suddenly shouted at the two behind her. Changkyun didn’t quite understand but Minhyuk pulled him to the floor by his shoulder, holding his chest down and protecting his head with one of his shoulders. Had the situation not been as grave Changkyun would take a moment to appreciate the incredibly brother-like gesture, but his mind was swerving around survival instincts right in this moment.

More shots were fired as Minhyuk and Changkyun still cowered on the floor. “Man down, let’s move,” she hissed to her two brothers and ever so carefully moved to the staircase. Minhyuk helped pull Changkyun up and slowly followed in Sera’s footsteps, often checking back at the youngest.

Just before they reach the end of the hallway with stairs, Sera paused her steps again. With her hand she pushed Minhyuk flat against the wall behind her, which was a clear signal for Changkyun to do the same thing. She listened to what was happening in the main room for a couple of seconds, hearing shuffling around the room, clicking of magazines being loaded into guns and sounds of liquid being spilled onto the floor.

“Stay here,” she hissed to Changkyun and Minhyuk and ducked down into a low squat. She had the advantage of knowing the space, so as she was crouched down in her spot she walked out aware of the fact that the bar was covering her entire body.

The reflective space, created by an old vintage mirror behind the bar where the bottles were place served her as a good lookout for what was happening it the big room, even though it as fairly dark in there. Her eyes were trained to do this and she was ready to fight whomever necessary to protect her brothers and get them out safe and sound. She noticed a man, who was spilling the extremely flammable gasoline onto the stone floor and the bottoms of curtains. Quickly checking for other men, she decided in a second to get out of hiding and shoot the guy dead.

Sera stood up and took her shot - 3 bullets cleanly hit the guy in the head, spilling his brains onto the floor beneath him by the impact. A shot flew by her own head as she dropped back down behind the bar moving along it to the other open end quickly and precisely, hoping that Minhyuk and Changkyun would be fine with where they were.

Suddenly she heard the failed click of a lighter. _Fuck, fuck fuck_ , she thought to herself hastily, when she reached the other end of the bar. More men came into view, but they clearly did not anticipate she would appear there, so she managed to kill off all three in the eyesight.

Another foreign gunshot sounded and this one hit her bicep from the side, she grunted in pain and swiftly turned in the direction it came for and shot out, unfortunately missing the assailant.

The lighter clicked again and this time a short chuckle came with it. “Regards delivered,” a deep male voice sounded from the entrance to the bar and suddenly there was so much light. The fire spread around in a fraction of a second, long curtain and couches caught on fire almost as fast. The heat radiating from it started spreading around the room.

“Fuck!” Sera exclaimed. “Min, Kyun, get behind the bar. Quick!”

From the back of her eye, she noticed the two doing exactly what she told them. Crouched down, they walked to her, both breathing heavily from fear and the short run. Changkyun appeared to her side, protected by Minhyuk from the back. Out of nowhere a man appeared behind Minhyuk, hitting him smack across the head with the heel of his gun, knocking him to the floor and making him unconscious. Sera reacted to this by shooting the guy in the forehead but unfortunately that did not solve the problem with a knocked out Minhyuk.

She turned to the slightly trembling Changkyun. “Kyun, listen to me and listen _well_ , okay? I’m going to take care of all of these guys and get you to safety, okay? What I need you to do is calm down and try get out of here, okay? We’re gonna get out of here alive,” she told him firmly, staring deeply into his eyes “I don’t know how many there are left in the room, but definitely a couple of them, so I need you get up and run as fast as you can to the exit, alright?” Changkyun swallowed the lump of fear in his throat, he looked like he was about to say something but Sera cut him off before he could utter a word. “Hyunwoo and Jooheon should already be here. Run outside and don’t look back, okay? Take this,” she handed him the gun from behind her belt.

“I-I don’t know how to use it, noona,” he protested softly.

“You point and pull the trigger, bro. There’s nothing really difficult to it. _Go_.”

“What about Minhyuk hyung?”

“I’ll get him out. _Go!_ ” she pushed Changkyun out from behind the bar in the direction o the exit as she stood up and shot another two men.

Changkyun sprinted to the door, the gunshots deafeningly sounding behind him. He jumped through a little fire by the opened door that was almost blocked by a limp body of one of the attacker. As he ran out, he noticed the whole family standing outside of the bar and he headed right into Kihyun’s arms, who hugged him real tight to his chest. Changkyun squeezed him back as if he was clinging onto life itself.

Meanwhile inside, Sera got rid of all of the men that were still present in the bar space, ending their lives promptly. She returned to Minhyuk and woke him up by the shoulder squeeze technique. His eyes fluttered open before rolling back again. “Min, I need you to wake up!” she slapped his cheek softly and she dropped the rifle on the floor of the bar. Slipping an arm underneath his shoulder, she pulled him up and supported him on their way out.

The fire has spread out now but Sera recognized a way out, although she knew it wouldn’t be easy with a barely conscious Minhyuk on her shoulder. At least, to her extreme happiness, he was more or less walking, even if they swayed and walked slowly.

On their way to the door, Minhyuk tripped and dragged Sera down with him. “Listen, Min,” she slapped his cheek lightly again in quick succesion. “We must have out of here… like right now, okay? Help me a little and try to walk.”

He nodded his head, showing he understood what she asked of him. Combined with her help he stood up again and they made their way to the exit again. Finally they managed to reach the door, relatively unscathed by the fire and out of the corner of her eyes, Sera noticed a man on the ground writhe. It was one she shot in the chest.

In panic, he might still be alive she pushed Minhyuk out of the door into the street, hoping that Hyunwoo and Jooheon were already there and were prepared to catch Minhyuk if he stumbled to the ground again.

She reached into the holster on her thigh and swiftly pulled out the hunters’ knife, much faster than the man managed to pull his gun at her. Throwing it at him, she hit him right in her aimed spot on his throat, causing him to gurgle blood up his throat and as he convulsed in pain.

With a loud noise, one of the curtain rags above her fell and hit the marble floor next to her. Sera didn’t have time to spare a look to the bar, where she’d spent so many nights and enjoyed her time with her brothers.

Running out through the exit, she noticed all of the family anxiously waiting for her to get out of the burning building, all bearing worried expression. The non-fiery, cool air of the outside night world brushed her skin.

But out of nowhere, in a sudden split second, the world went entirely black.

|Kihyun POV|

Sera ran out of the fire consuming building and she was in one piece. Relief washed over Kihyun, but suddenly another gunshot ripped through the air

Kihyun watch Sera fall to the ground onto her side from the impact, red blood slowly started to trickle out of a small dark hole on her left temple. And then everything happened so fast.

Hyunwoo whipped around, the gun in his hand at ready as he shot the man, who has been off to the side of the bar, hidden and waiting for his chance.

In the same moment, Hyungwon darted to Sera, falling down on his knees next to her. Changkyun screamed her name from the top of his lungs, the voice full of pain and disbelief. Kihyun followed Hyungwon and just like the doctor he kneeled by her. Hoseok and Jooheon supported Minhyuk as he limped fastly closer with a horrified expression on his face. Hyunwoo joined them as well, right after the man, who fired the shot dropped dead onto the concrete.

Hyungwon hugged Sera close to his chest, sobs ripping through his body as he shook her body and repeatedly called out her name, desperately wishing all of this wasn’t true and it was just a bad, awful, terrible nightmare, because this couldn’t be right… this had to be… there were no words in Hyungwon’s mind. The only thing that circled it was the image of Sera’s empty, lifeless face as he held her tightly against him. The woman that meant his world, that created his world, his sun spun around her - she was the centre of his universe… except she _wasn’t_ anymore.

Hyungwon’s world shattered beyond repair. “No, _no_ ,” he cried, “please don’t leave me, baby. Not you, too. Please stay with me... _please_. You promised you’d stay with me forever, remember? Sera… baby, please… _no_.” Tears stained his cheeks, just like the faces of all of the family members, but he spoke to air - there was no fixing of what had just happened. His sobs were getting louder and louder, his chest imploded with pain that was never going to leave again.

Kihyun held Changkyun close to him as he tried to do anything to calm himself and the younger, but there was nothing. Absolute _nothing_ \- his world too, was now ripped apart. His sister forcefully taken away from him, when he promised he would protect her… he promised her when they made their small family for the first time that he would never leave her. But he never thought she would be the one leaving first…

Changkyun kept crying: “Noona! Answer! Please just do anything! _Please_!”

Minhyuk knelt on the concrete bent over as he cried and screamed in pain at the loss of his second sister, his angel. The one, who saved him from so much pain more times that anyone could count - she kept saving him every day just by simply being, but now…

Jooheon stared at the starless black sky as the tears fell down his eyes, silently begging the heaves for it to not be true. To not take Sera away from them, to not do this to their family, because she was the last person on Earth, who would have ever deserved to die.

Hoseok was opposite Hyungwon, he held Sera’s small hand in both of his big ones as he felt them not squeeze back no matter how hard he clenched it down. In his mind he heard her laugh, like the one he used to hear on the balcony of her apartment when they used to smoke up and she found particularly great joke. But the memory was fleeting, compared to the image right in front of him.

Hyunwoo crouched down next to Hyungwon and pried the unwilling arms open. He took Sera’s body into his own.

“ _WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!_ ” Hyungwon screamed at him with pain and accusation.

The face that Hyunwoo bore was horrible. His face was tear-stained, with a deep pain settled on it. “Won,” he whispered, his voice broken due to the grief of loss, “we have to get out of here. Before… before someone else gets down here.” He cradled Sera’s lifeless body closer to him gingerly, holding her so close just for the one last time and then looked to the rest of the family that was looking up at him and up to him. “Please, guys…” he swallowed a sob, “l-let’s just get out of here and-and go somewhere safer.”

Kihyun pulled in a shaky breath, responding to Hyuwoo’s begs. “He’s right,” he said, broken just like the others.

Hyunwoo made the first step away from the still kneeling family towards the SUV he had arrived in along with Hyungwon and Hoseok, who now scrambled to his feet and ran to the car to open the door to the backseat for his oldest brother. On his way there, Hyunwoo gingerly pressed Sera’s body closer to his chest as the tears blurred his vision before fall onto his cheeks and further down on the blood stained shirt of his little sister.

After Hyunwoo gently laid her body down on to the back seats, Hyungwon climbed there as well, positioning her on his lap as he wrapped his arms around her again, holding her close. Hoseok went to the front with limping footsteps, trying to just breathe in and out as he cluched onto his chest, where the ball of pain concentrated.

Kihyun led loudly sobbing Changkyun too Jooheon’s car, where the second youngest was currently trying to convince Minhyuk to just get into the car, so they can leave before they get themselves into more danger, just like Hyunwoo hyung said, because he was right after all. Kihyun didn’t understand how Jooheon managed to convince Minhyuk into the car, as the man himself was crying so hard.

Somehow they all managed to get into their cars and drive away before anyone else had the chance to arrive at the bar.

Three days later, the 7 members of the family gathered in the far, far end of the cemetery, where Jooheon’s parents also found their final resting place. Kihyun and Hyunwoo pulled some strings and convinced the people working there to bury Ryu Sera there, without papers that were necessary for it, but they also had to compensate it well.

So there they were, on a cloudy day, 7 men dressed in well made black suits, looking at filled up grave that was now being embedded with a gravestone that read a simple message: ‘ _Sera, a beloved sister, a saving angel and a whole world.’_

Tears still fell down all of their cheeks, some were silent, some accompanied by quiet sobs. The family was broken by the loss of one of their own and everyone had a different way of dealing with the grief in the last three days.

Minhyuk’s way was to look for the one, who caused the whole thing and unbeknownst to Kihyun, he managed to find the answer and tell it to Hyungwon as well. “It was her… La Reina,” he whispered again to the rest of the family as they kept standing around the grave in silence. “She wanted a way to hurt Kihyun and the family for threatening her and as a revenge for taking her lands. The best way she found out was to take Sera away from you as she knew you were close.”

There was another silent moment before Hyungwon found his voice after gulping down another set of tears. “You guys go ahead with the plan and do whatever you want, but I’m going to Mexico,” he said with a determination settled in his voice and on his face. “I’ve already talked with Hoseok hyung and he agreed to go with me. Both of us need to go.”

 _God.. I just wanted to get out of this life,_ Kihyun thought to himself painfully. “Hyungwon…”

“I get it, Kihyun,” Hyungwon cut him off, still staring at the face of the gravestone. “You don’t have to go. You have something to lose, but I _don’t_. My _whole world_ was taken away from me. So I get it… don’t worry.”

“Yeah, I found my solace with the little woman…” Hoseok managed to word his feelings in between the sobs soft crying breaths, “I can’t just let it go either, Ki.”

“My little angel, who brought me back to life of happiness more than once was taken away from me and fucking hear me out when I say that you two are not going to Mexico alone,” Minhyuk laid a hand softly on Hyungwon’s shoulder with assuring resolve. He stared into Hyungwon’s eyes and then to Hoseok’s and the glimmer they had in them was the exact same as the one Minhyuk had.

“No one is going anywhere alone,” Hyunwoo decided with a strong voice laced with deep pain, which all of them knew would never leave his manner of speech again.

“Yeah,” Jooheon agreed with his hyung.

“I never said I wasn’t going or that we’re not getting revenge for Sera. All I’m saying is that we need a plan,” Kihyun stepped one step closer to Hyungwon and stood next to him, shoulder to shoulder, looking at the gravestone as well.

“I agree,” Changkyun joined in a low voice that sounded as if he just now stopped crying. “We’ll work out a plan on the way to Mexico. Don’t worry, hyung, we’re not letting her off.”

Hyungwon took a deep breath in as he made promise to his brothers and to the woman he loved more than life itself. “She’s going to pay.”

THE END.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That is the end...
> 
> What do you think of what happened in the last chapter? Was it shocking or did you expect something like this happen? Did anyone shed a tear by any chance by the sudden fall-apart of Hyungwon's world? Please share your thoughts and opinions with me in the comments one last time, they have always made my day and I love reading them. 🤗🤍
> 
> Also: 🤍THANK YOU🤍 so so much for sticking around for 18 fairly long chapters with the family, for all of your comments and kudos, they mean so much to me (and I don't think I can express that in letters🥰). I wanted to leave the ending opened for you guys to decide yourselves on what happens in Mexico or maybe decide that you want to see the story of Hoseok's and Hyungwon's bromance - I'll leave that up to you. 🤗 In either case, once again... thank you for reading Little Psycho and I hope that the story kept you company, that you enjoyed the time you spent reading it and that you would come back for more of my stories (those I've written or those that are to come in the future) 😊
> 
> I hope you have a good rest of the day and that we meet again in the other stories. 🤗 However until then, take care and stay healthyヾ(*￣▽￣*) see you again! 🥰🤍🤙

**Author's Note:**

> That's all for now folks! Let's see each other in my other stories ^^


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